


Boys of Summer

by My_Trex_has_fleas



Series: Boys Of Summer [1]
Category: Poldark - All Media Types, Return to Treasure Island (TV 1996)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Explicit Sexual Content, First Time, Jim is a surfer, M/M, Ross is a BMX baby, Teen Romance, Their friends are enablers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-02-25
Packaged: 2018-05-17 11:55:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 31,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5868445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/My_Trex_has_fleas/pseuds/My_Trex_has_fleas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ross has something he wants to get rid of. A long weekend in Newquay seems like the perfect opportunity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Newquay

The worst thing about being seventeen and still a virgin was not so much the fact that he was a virgin. It was that everyone else he hung out with wasn’t.

Ross stared at himself in the bathroom mirror and frowned as he pushed his heavy dark brown fringe up. He had a spot coming out right smack on his forehead. There was absolutely no avoiding it. 

‘Fuck.’ he said and let his hair fall back down. ‘Why now?’ He glared at his reflection and then picked up his toothbrush and squeezed toothpaste onto it. He brushed his teeth with a stroppiness that only a teenage boy could manage and then spat and rinsed and stalked out the bathroom. He was almost to his bedroom when he heard his mother calling for him from downstairs. 

‘Ross?’ she called. ‘They’re here.’ He sighed and went to hang over the bannister. 

‘Okay.’ he called down. ‘I’m coming.’ Then he heard snickers and saw his cousin Francis come into the hall.

‘That’s what she said.’ he laughed, and then looked over his shoulder. ‘Unless you completely fuck it up.’ The last words were hissed at Ross with a look of glee, and just for a second Ross was sure that he actually hated his cousin. 

‘I will fucking get you for that!’ he hissed back and Francis smiled broadly and gave him the finger. Ross glared at him and then stormed off to his bedroom, slamming the door behind him. He leaned back against it heavily. 

Oh yes, that was the other reason being a virgin sucked balls. His friends never let him forget it. They laughed and needled and made fun of him and that was the whole reason he had cooked up this dumb-as-fuck idea in the first place.

His bag was packed and ready and he went to his bed and slung it over his shoulder. His parting look in the mirror behind his door showed him a gangly boy in black skinny jeans, converse with the toes wearing through and a red and grey and black plaid shirt over a Grateful Dead T-shirt he’d stolen from his dad. His thick dark hair was a mess, like it frequently was. 

Yeah, there was no way he was getting laid this summer. 

When Ross got downstairs, the group of people he actually referred to as his friends was in the kitchen talking to Grace and giggling. His best friend Demelza was the first to see him and she bounced over. She was wearing an outfit that was almost a dead ringer for his, only her t-shirt was for the Slits and her converse were hot pink and matched her thick curly hair. She was wearing a black hoodie about three sizes too big for her. 

‘Hello.’ she said, hanging onto his arm. ‘Time to goooooo!’ Ross was sure that she was far more excited than all of them put together. 

‘You’re nuts.’ he said. 

‘What?’ she asked. ‘This was your idea.’ Ross sighed again and looked at the other people in the room. Francis was now leaning against the kitchen counter next to George and Andrew had Verity balanced on his lap. These were the idiots he was going to Newquay with.

It had seemed like a brilliant idea at the time. The May bank holiday was looming and that meant two whole nights to chase down the girl of his dreams and do everything in his power to get her to sleep with him. Elizabeth had told him she was spending the long weekend in Newquay with her sister and her sister’s friends. This information had been imparted to him in Maths class on Thursday and had driven the rest of the group into a frenzy of organisation. By Thursday afternoon, George had convinced his father to book them a camping site at Tergurrian Camping Ground and they were all set to go spend the three days there. The idea was three two man tents - Verity and Demelza in one, Francis and Ross in the other and George and Andrew in the third. They were being driven from Truro to Newquay by George’s dad who had a people carrier and coming back on Monday afternoon. And in the space of those two and a half days, the idea was to get him and Elizabeth alone and in a compromising position.

‘Fine.’ he muttered. ‘Let’s fucking go.’ 

‘Bye sweetie.’ Grace said coming to hug him. ‘You all have fun and for God’s sake be careful whatever you’re doing.’

‘We will, Mrs P.’ Demelza grinned. ‘Come on, Ross.’

Outside George and Francis helped Ross load his fixed frame BMX onto the back of the people carrier next to Demelza’s, then he chucked his back-back and sleeping bag in the boot along with everyone else’s. When he got in he went to sit with Demelza who had commandeered the entire back seat for them. She produce a bag of Haribo Sour Mix from her pocket and offered it to him. Ross took a handful and chewed as she chattered on about the art project they were doing together the following week. He looked moodily out the window and missed half of what she was saying until she gave him a hard poke in the ribs, making him yelp.

‘Bloody hell, Dem.’ he said. ‘That hurt.’

‘You’re not listening to me.’ she said, sounding annoyed. ‘You’re heads all twisted up over that bubble brain.’ 

‘Elizabeth’s not a bubble brain.’ he retorted. 

‘No, you’re right.’ Demelza was grinning broadly. ‘She’s the perfect woman.’ The sweetness in her voice was contradicted by the derisive snort that followed it. Ross glared at her, his thick dark eyebrows giving him a sulky look.

‘You don’t have to tell me you don’t like her.’ he said. ‘I think I know.’

‘She’s shallow.’ Demelza said. ‘And she knows she’s got you wrapped around her little finger.’ She flicked her pink curls. ‘And you get stupid around her.’ 

‘That’s because he likes her.’ Francis was turned around and looking at them. ‘He loooooves her. His little virgin brain explodes every time he’s around her.’

‘Fuck off Francis.’ Ross muttered and sank down in his seat.

**********

The trip to Newquay normally took about half an hour. But because it was Bank holiday weekend that meant tourists and so it took closer to an hour. George’s dad resolutely refused to drive through the town to the caravan park and dropped them on the south side. There was a lengthy debate and then it was decided that seeing as Ross and Demelza had their bikes that they should take the three tents and the sleeping bags and get a head start. So he and Demelza set off by themselves, the gear strapped to the back of their bikes. 

The town was ridiculously busy and Ross soon forgot his current dilemma in favour of riding his bike at breakneck sped through the traffic, Demelza in hot pursuit. He loved this, standing up on the pedals and careening between the cars, invoking the rage of motorists and pedestrians alike. He could just hear Demelza cackling behind him. There was a crossroad up ahead and he didn’t see any imminent traffic so Ross picked up speed and headed for the road in front. His bike flew off the pavement and hit the tarmac and just as he got halfway across the road, a car came out of nowhere. The hooter blared and Ross got such a fright he skidded to a dead stop in the middle of the street. His adrenaline was racing and he whipped his head round to see that the car in question was a bright tangerine VW bug convertible. There were three occupants, two young men in the front, one dark and one blond, and a young woman with sea green mermaid hair in the back. 

Ross sat there, breathing hard as the young man in the passenger seat stood up, pushing his sunglasses up on his bright blond hair. He was deeply tanned and wearing khaki shorts and a white t-shirt with an obnoxiously bright Hawaiian shirt open over it. Ross was about to shout something at him, when their eyes locked and his whole stomach suddenly felt like it had when he’d gone on his first ride at Thorpe Park. 

The man’s eyes were light, the same colour as the sea that stretched along the Cornish coast. Ross had no idea what was happening to him, but he felt weird as fuck. Then the blond man laughed and two deep dimples appeared at the corners of a smile that made Ross’ heart skip a beat. 

Ross was confused. He had never had a reaction like this before. Sure there had been other guys at school that had caught his attention, but he’d stuffed it deep under a blanket of denial. Demelza was happy and out, but he wanted no part of that at all and had always thought he was only interested in girls when it came right down to it. 

However, that was not what his body was telling him right at that minute. 

Completely at a loss, Ross did the only thing he could think of. He gave the occupants of the car (and more specifically the blond man that had managed to mess up his head in under a minute) the finger and then rode off the street as fast as he fucking could.


	2. Confrontation (Of Sorts)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jim & co. arrive back at the campground.

Jim stared as the boy on the bike gave them all the finger, his dark eyes defiant. Then he sped off, his companion with the flamingo pink curls hurtling after him. 

‘That little bastard!’ John was shaking his head. ‘We almost fucking ran him over.’ 

‘Kids.’ Anne said from the back seat, sounding for all the world like she was seventy-nine instead of nineteen. Jim laughed again and sat back down. 

‘Thank fuck you have mouse like reflexes.’ he said, grinning at John. 

‘Thank fuck, indeed.’ John replied. He put the car in gear and started down the road again. ‘Christ, I need a fucking drink after that.’

‘Aw, poor baby.’ Anne laughed, draping her arms around his neck and making him choke a little. 

‘Oi!’ he said. ‘Please do not strangle the driver.’ 

‘Yeesh, fine.’ she said, letting him go and sitting back in the seat. ‘Take a right here, John.’ John obliged and they drove down towards the Sainsburys. He pulled into the parking lot and found a space, then all three of them climbed out the car. Anne cantered off to get a trolley and Jim was about to follow her when John caught his arm. His blue eyes were sparkling with something that immediately put Jim on alert. 

‘So...’ he said with a shark-like grin that showed off his perfectly white teeth. ‘I noticed that.’ 

‘Noticed what?’ Jim said, but he avoided John’s eyes, knowing that his best friend was more than capable of picking up on the fact that Jim knew what he was referring to. 

‘I saw that. You practically climbed out the car to get a look at him.’ John’s smile was unwavering. ‘You thought the little fucker was cute.’ 

‘Jesus Christ.’ Jim knew he sounded defensive and wanted to melt into the floor. ‘He’d just nearly caused an accident.’ 

‘And that’s why I hooted at him.’ John said. ‘There was fuck all need for you to ogle the boy in the middle of the road.’ His amused tone made Jim’s face heat up.

‘Fuck off, Silver.’ he retorted. ‘You need fucking glasses is what you need.’ 

‘Oh I don’t think so, Hawkins.’ John replied. ‘I think I know exactly what I saw.’ 

‘And what was that?’ Anne asked as she rode the trolley up to them, balancing across the handle bar. 

‘Him.’ John said gesturing to Jim. Anne smiled and flicked her hair out of her eyes. 

‘You’re talking about Jim giving cute BMX boy the once over, right?” she asked. 

‘Oh for fuck’s sake.’ Jim snorted and stomped off to the front door of the shop. The other two followed him, snickering noisily. 

Inside the shop, they drifted around randomly picking up food and drinks for the barbeque they were having that evening. 

‘I’m just saying that you’ve been single for ages.’ Anne said picking up three bags of marshmallows from the shelf and chucking them in the trolley. ‘A fling might be just what you need.’

‘Jim doesn’t do flings.’ John said, adding another three bags. ‘That’s why he hasn’t gotten laid in six months. Which is criminal considering.’ 

‘I like being single.’ Jim replied. ‘Just ‘cause you and Flint are up to your ears in questionable activities doesn’t mean that’s how I choose to spend my time.’

‘Bollocks.’ John said. ‘You’re a fucking horny bastard just like the rest of us.’ He looked at Anne who was holding up two jars of Nutella and nodded. She put both of them in the trolley. ‘And if you had a boyfriend anywhere as hot as Flint is, you’d spend all your time fucking him as well.’ 

‘Oh ew.’ Anne said, making a face. ‘Now all I can think about is your skinny arse on top of him.’ She giggled as John made a swipe at her and took Jim’s arm. ‘Don’t you listen to him, babe. We can be single and fabulous together.’ 

‘Until she finds a cute goth girl and ends up eating her out all weekend.’ John laughed, then ducked as he was pelted with bags of marshmallows.

***********

Ross and Demelza left the site office and wheeled their bikes across to the far end of the camping ground. Their site was one of the smaller ones and about a thousand miles from the shower block, but it was right next to the beach. 

They got there and Ross noticed that the site was in the corner which mean only one plot next to them. Unfortunately it blocked them off and he and Demelza had to navigate their way through. The site next to them was taken up by a turquoise blue VW campervan and two tents. Ross noted the row of surfboards propped up against the side of the van. 

As they made their way across they were suddenly confronted by a very smiley dog. It was short and had a thick blue merle coat with one ear that stood up and one that flopped over. It wriggled its bottom frantically at them and then came over and stuck its nose in Ross’ crotch.

‘Stop that.’ Ross admonished, pushing the dog’s muzzle away from him. He couldn’t help smiling at it though and Demelza looked like she was so in love she was about to propose marriage. She handed off her bike to Ross and dropped to both knees to ruffle the dogs fur.

‘Oh, you are sooooo gorgeous.’ she said, smiling from ear to ear. ‘You’re almost as cute as my Garrick.’ she dog washed her face with a bright pink tongue and wriggled some more. 

‘If you keep saying that, he’ll get a superiority complex.’ a voice said and they looked up to see a tall, well-built young man walking towards them from the pathway to the beach. He had hair that veered between sandy and auburn and blue-grey eyes and a complexion that really shouldn’t have been out in the sun if the peeling nose was anything to go by. His voice held an unmistakable Scottish inflection. 

Ross and Demelza stood up and the dog melted against Demelza’s legs and gave his owner a look that said he was quite happy where he was right at that moment, thank you. 

‘What’s his name?’ Demelza asked, still ruffling the dog’s fur. 

‘Billy Bones.’ the young man replied. ‘And I’m James McGraw, but most people call me Flint.’ 

‘I’m Demi and this is Ross.’ Demelza said, returning Flint’s smile. ‘Looks like we’re neighbours for the weekend.’ 

‘Cool.’ Flint said. ‘You guys surf?’

‘No.’ Demelza said with a giggle. ‘Just this.’ She gestured at the bikes. 

‘Nice.’ Flint replied. ‘You going to go down to Wooden Waves?’

‘That’s the idea.’ Demelza said. ‘Get some time in.’

‘Excellent.’ Flint gave them both a grin. ‘Well, my mates aren’t back from the shop yet, but you’re welcome to come round later. We’re having a bit of a barbeque and it’s probably going to get a bit noisy, just to warn you youngsters.’

‘Oh please.’ Emelza flicked her hair. ‘Like you’re so much older than we are. You’re what, second year?’

‘Good catch.’ Flint nodded. ‘We’re all at Plymouth.’

‘Cool.’ Demelza was back on her knees again, scrathing Billy’s ears. ‘Are you all studying the same thing?’

‘Yeah, Marine and Composites Tech.’ Flint grinned at Ross. ‘Is she always this beaky?’

‘Always.’ Ross said. ‘She’s like the Spanish Inquisition.’

He finally managed to drag Demelza away from the dog and Flint and over to their camp site but not before Demelza had promised that they would go over later. 

‘Well he’s nice.’ she said to Ross while they were stating to put op the first of the three tents. 

‘Yeah, he is.’ Ross replied, more to pacify her than anything else. 

‘It must be pretty cool to surf.’ Demelza had a speculative look on her face. ‘Maybe I’ll ask him if he can teach me a bit.’ Ross shook his head.

‘I’m sure he has better things to do.’ Ross said. He lifted his head as he heard the sound of a car approaching and then he went white. ‘Oh fuck…’

‘What?’ Demelza looked up and then she saw the approaching vehicle and her eyes widened. ‘Bugger. Isn’t that the bunch that nearly ran you over?’

‘Great.’ Ross was now heading in the opposite direction, his face steadily going red. ‘And we’re right next door to them.’ They stood and watched as the three occupants got out the car. Flint went over to them and there seemed to be some conversation going on. Then he pointed in their direction and Ross and Demelza both dropped their heads and tried to look as busy as possible. They heard the sound of someone coming towards them and Ross braced himself internally. A shadow fell across the tent he was trying to put up and he looked up, fully prepared for a barrage of insults or worse. Instead he got a blinding smile and that same pair of dimples that had turned his head earlier. Ross straightened up and stared at the blond man standing in front of him, and realised that he was much better looking closer up. That really didn’t help matters. Honestly he would have rather it was the driver, who was now watching from the sidelines with the green haired woman.

‘You’re pretty good on that.’ the young man’s voice was amused. ‘Damn good thing to, or we would have been scraping you off the fucking road.’ He looked at Ross steadily. ‘You like to live dangerously or are you just an idiot?’ 

‘Do I look like an idiot?’ Ross bristled. He glared at the blond man and wished that his stupid brain would switch off. It was very unhelpfully pointing things out to him, like the fact that he was half a head taller than the blond which meant that Ross would have to lean down if he wanted to kiss him.

‘No.’ the blond man grinned and those stupid dimples flashed again and Ross’ stomach did a happy flip. ‘You look like a reckless kid who has a death wish.’

‘Who the fuck are you calling a kid…’ Ross couldn’t help blurting out, sounding as stroppy as he could. There a flash in the blue-green eyes that were busy looking at him and the young man’s face grew stormy. Ross felt a stab of alarm at the fact that not only was he in for it, but that the change of expression just made the blond even better looking. 

‘He’s just an idiot.’ Demelza broke in, coming over with her best and brightest smile on display. Unlike Ross, she knew the value of a good charm offensive. ‘Sometimes his body engages before his brain does.’ She stopped in front of the young man. ‘And Flint’s already decided he likes us so you can’t kill Ross and dump his body in the sea.’ The reaction was a look of disbelief and then the blond man’s face changed back to its previously cheerful expression and he laughed. 

‘I wasn’t actually thinking of doing that.’ He bit his bottom lip as he gave Ross a considering look. ‘Just be more careful, yeah? It would be a terrible shame if that cute arse of yours got flattened by a car.’ He gave Demelza a wink and then turned around and walked off back to his site. 

Ross stood and watched him go with his mouth open and his face now a particularly fetching shade of scarlet. Next to him, Demelza was grinning like a Cheshire Cat. 

‘Oh, now this is interesting.’ she looked at Ross. ‘He said your arse was cute.’

‘Shut up.’ Ross dropped his head and furiously continued putting the tent up.

***********

Jim got back to the site to see the other three grinning at him broadly.

‘So much for bollocking the kid.’ John said. ‘What the fuck happened?’

‘Nothing.’ Jim said airily walking past him to his van. ‘I just decided to be the bigger person.’

‘Oh really?’ Anne said, exchanging looks with the other two. ‘That’s very unlike you.’ Jim threw open the side door and ignored her. 

‘I’m going surfing.’ he said. ‘You giggling hyenas are welcome to join me if you want.’ He got in and sat down on the edge of his bed to take off his shoes and tried to ignore the fact that he’d gone over there fully intending to give a lecture on road safety. Instead he'd taken one look the boy he’d just spoken to and noticed was that he had dark freckles across his cheeks and eyes that were a mesmerising combination of velvety brown, gold and green and all his intentions had evaporated.

‘You’re such a fucking wanker.’ he muttered to himself.


	3. Noticing and Noticing of Noticing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Looks are thrown across the camps, and there is more than one prospective romance on the horizon.

Ross was trying to surreptitiously watch the camp next door and put up his side of the tent at the same time. He couldn’t help but notice when the blond man came out of his van, now shirtless and wearing a pair of what looked like black lycra cycling shorts. He was a little too far away to really see well, but Ross noticed that he was obviously in shape. He went to the makeshift washing line they had set up and retrieved a wetsuit that was hanging on it. Ross watched as he pulled it on, completely forgetting that he was supposed to be holding the tent up for Demelza to thread the support poles through. His eyes stayed glued as the young man pulled the wetsuit up over his arms and finished off by zipping it up the back. 

‘Finally.’ Demelza said. ‘Now maybe you can stop staring and help me finish this.’ Ross turned and looked at her.

‘I wasn’t staring.’ he said. Demelza laughed. 

‘You were so staring.’ she said. ‘I don’t blame you though. He’s pretty hot.’ 

‘He’s also a guy.’ Ross said. 

‘So?’ Demelza shrugged. ‘It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve snogged a bloke.’

‘Shut up!’ Ross hissed at her, looking around. ‘No-one fucking knows about that.’

‘Ross, I know about it.’ she pointed out. 

‘And I’m really starting to regret telling you.’ Ross grumbled. ‘Besides, I’m here to see Elizabeth.’ 

‘Don’t you think it’s weird she makes people call her Elizabeth.’ Demelza mused as she stood on the tent pegs to sink them into the ground. ‘Like she’s the queen or something. I think you’d be better off with hot surfer dude.’ She giggled when Ross didn’t answer, too busy watching the blond talk to the driver who was now also in a wet suit. They took their boards from the side of the van and balanced them on their heads before heading for the beach. Ross watched until they had disappeared. He sighed and went back to what he’d been doing.

‘If you like him, you should make a move.’ Demelza said sagely. ‘I think he might like you back. Did you see the way he was looking at you earlier?’ 

‘It’s funny you should say that, because I was about to say the same thing.’ The voice sounded like it was on the verge of breaking into laughter. They turned around to see the green haired woman standing behind them and grinning. Ross noticed that Demelza’s eyes went a little bit wide as she took in the sight of the back seat occupant of the car. 

‘I’m Anne.’ the woman said stepping forward and holding out her hand to Demelza. 

‘I’m Demelza.’ Demelza said. Ross was surprised to see her cheeks were a little pink. The flush grew as Anne gave her a very thorough look, still holding onto her hand. 

‘Well, aren’t you just cute as a button.’ she said. ‘So Flint tells me you are coming over later. I hope you like marshmallows.’

‘I love them.’ Demelza was starting to get that goofy smile that Ross knew meant she was enthralled. 

‘Well then you’ll have to make sure you sit next to me. I am a marshmallow toaster extraordinaire.’ Anne’s smile was lovely. She finally let go of Demelza’s hand and reached out, rubbing a strand of bright pink hair between her fingers. ‘Is this Pretty Flamingo? If so it suits you. Pretty Flamingo for a pretty girl.’

‘Yeah, it is.’ Demelza was smiling broadly now. ‘What’s yours?’

‘Alpine Green.’ Anne replied. ‘But it’s kind of faded from the salt.’

‘Cool, so you surf too?’ Demelza’s eyes lit up.

‘Yeah, I do.’ Anne said. ‘You ride though, which is also amazing. You do tricks?’

‘Some.’ Demelza said modestly and Ross wanted to snort. Demelza was nothing short of amazing.

‘You should see her.’ he interrupted, deciding that he might as well put his two pennies worth in. 

‘I’d like to.’ Anne said. ‘Maybe you could show me your moves?’ This was to Demelza and was accompanied by a cheeky grin. ‘And maybe Jim could show your friend his?’ 

Maybe he could.’ Demelza turned and waggled her eyebrows at Ross. She gave Anne a devastating smile that made Ross extremely nervous. ‘I think that would make for a wonderful night’s entertainment.’

‘Hmmm.’ Anne’s smile was a lot more interesting. ‘I think you would make for a wonderful night’s entertainment.’ 

‘Oh my God.’ Ross stared at them. ‘I think I’m going to be sick…’

‘Jealousy makes you nasty, Ross.’ Demelza was staring at Anne, her blue eyes challenging. ‘I should warn you, I am quite a handful according to my friends.’

‘Good. I like a challenge.’ Anne said. ‘I’ll see you later then. Bring the beanpole.’ She walked back to her campsite and Demelza watched her go. She turned back to see Ross’ outraged expression and giggled.

‘How the fuck do you do that?’ he asked, astounded and annoyed at the same time.

‘By not being a massive dork.’ she laughed. ‘Suddenly this weekend is looking a whole lot better.’ 

It was another hour before they finally saw the rest of their group coming down the road. They skirted around the tents and van and got to Ross and Demelza. Ross was pleased to see that at least they’d gone shopping. He was already hungry. 

‘Brill.’ Verity said. ‘You’ve got all the tents up.’

‘Because we are awesome.’ Demelza said. She’d already chucked her gear inside the tent her and Verity were sharing. The others did the same, spreading out sleeping bags and sleep mats and stowing backpacks away. While they were busy, Demelza told them what had happened and about being invited to join in the barbeque. Verity immediately dragged Andrew off to the camp site shop for supplies. This was because the shopping bags turned out to be almost all alcohol. Because Andrew was eighteen he could legally buy and had come back with four bottles of vodka and another four two litre cokes. The rest wasn’t so much food as incitement to diabetes. 

‘Okay.’ Ross looked at Demelza. ‘But I need actual food now.’ 

‘This is food.’ Francis protested, but it came out muffled through the mouthful of Doritos he was eating. 

‘Well, you said you wanted to go to Waves so let’s go and we can grab something on the way.’ Demelza said. Ross sighed, a little torn. Elizabeth had said that she and her sister were going to get to the camp around five in the afternoon and it was now three. He had hoped they would be next door to them, but now the best he could do was just hope that he could convince her to hang around and maybe get her in his tent.

But even as he was thinking that, a traitorous little voice was whispering to him that it wouldn’t be such a bad thing if he missed Elizabeth. Not with Jim next door. 

‘Yeah, good idea.’ he said, and then tried to look as casual as possible. ‘We can ride down by the beach.’ Demelza, who had not failed to miss how Ross had left Jim out of their recounting of what had happened and their invitation for later, gave him a grin.

‘Sure thing.’ she said. ‘Hey, Ross and I are going to go do some riding.’

‘Try not to get run over.’ George laughed. He and Francis had already opened a bottle of vodka and another of coke and were drinking it out the paper cups Verity had had the foresight to buy. 

‘Funny.’ Ross said and went to get his bike.

They rode down the footpath to the beach and stopped to look out over the water. It was pretty, although the stiff breeze had whipped the waves up into a choppy mess. There were a few surfers still out, but Ross was surprised to see two familiar figures coming up the beach. His eyes widened as they got to them. 

Jim’s wetsuit was plain black and moulded to him like a second skin where it rose to his waist. The top part had been unzipped and was hanging down. Ross had to fight the urge to just stare at his compact well-defined body which was as tanned as his arms and face. His thick blond hair was now dark with water and he carried his board easily under one arm, the leash still around his right ankle. There was a glint of silver at his neck and Ross realised he was wearing a chain and a pendant shaped like an anchor. All of this only served to make his hormones go crazy. 

‘Well, if it isn’t Evil Knieval.’ the driver said. ‘We didn’t get a chance to introduce ourselves earlier, seeing how I was trying not to kill you.’ His teeth flashed white in his face. ‘I’m John and this is Jim.’ Demelza snorted with laughter. 

‘You sound like a folk band.’ she said. ‘We already know what his name is. Anne told us earlier.’ John and Jim looked at each other. 

‘Oh God.’ Jim said. ‘She’s already started.’ He grinned at Demelza. ‘Our resident siren has apparently decided on her next seductee.’

‘Oh she won’t be seducing me.’ Demelza said pertly. ‘I plan on being a very willing participant. You can pass that message along when you see her.’ She pushed off and cycled past them just quick enough so they had to step out her way, flashing a wicked smile at them. 

That left Ross just standing there. He felt like his heart was going a mile a minute, especially when Jim turned around and locked eyes with him. The stare grew more intense until John laughed and the tension snapped between them.

‘So what about you, hotshot?’ he asked, shark-like grin in place. ‘Are you going to be a willing participant or are you going to make Jim chase you?’ Ross’ mouth dropped open and he could feel himself going scarlet. He had no idea what to say so instead he pushed off the ground and hared off past them, pedalling down the hill fast enough to break the sound barrier.

They watched him go and when Jim turned back around, John was looking at him, smug grin plastered all over his face. Jim shook his head at him and then backhanded him in the arm, making John wince.

‘What the fuck was that?’ he asked. John shrugged.

‘He’s cute.’ he said. ‘And he’s been watching you since he got there. You should be thanking me.’

‘He’s only a baby, John.’ Jim said, but he did look back over his shoulder at the quickly disappearing figure. ‘And now you’ve probably scared the shit out of him.’

‘Wait.’ John said, all confidence. ‘We have the whole night to make him realise that he could do a fuckload worse.’ He walked off leaving Jim to glare at his advancing back.

‘Oh well, thank you very fucking much.’ he said. 

‘You’re welcome, dickhead.’ John called back.


	4. Next Steps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This looks like trouble on the horizon.

Ross sat on his bike, feet planted on either side and leaning on his handlebars as he watched Demelza hit the ramp and come off the top, executing a perfect 360 before she landed. He was still feeling a bit sick from the extra large Big Mac meal he’s consumed before they had come to the skate park and every time he rode he felt a little lurch in his stomach. It probably hadn’t been a good idea to try and shove that much food in there with all those butterflies already in residence.

He still couldn’t believe that he’d behaved like such an idiot. It wasn’t like he even knew the guy, all that had happened was that he’d had the bizarre fortune to nearly be run over by his friend. But in spite of that, Ross couldn’t kick the feelings that had him completely unfocused and screwing up even the most basic tricks. He had never felt like this before. Sure, he had had a couple of girlfriends and snogged plenty of people (including a few sneaky encounters that he’d only told Demelza about) but this was a far more severe reaction that he’d ever had. 

‘Hey.’ Demelza’s voice broke him out of his thoughts. ‘You going to stand there and daydream or are you going to ride.’ Her smile was teasing. ‘Although I think it’s hilarious.’

‘It’s not hilarious.’ Ross said, his glum expression not changing. ‘It’s pathetic.’

‘God, you’re so bloody dramatic.’ Demelza said. ‘So what if you like a cute guy? So what if you like a cute girl? Although in this case I think Jim definitely trumps Elizabeth.’ She took a pack of Juicy Fruit out her pocket, extracted one and unwrapped it, folded it in half and then popped it in her mouth. She offered the pack to Ross who did the same. He chewed meditatively for a few minutes.

‘Dem?’ he said and she raised her coppery eyebrows at him. ‘I think I like him.’ Demelza snorted loudly and almost swallowed her gum.

‘You think?’ she said, grinning. ‘You were practically drooling on the ground when we were talking to them. You took an hour to put up a tent that should have taken fifteen minutes because you were too busy checking him out to actually concentrate on what you were doing. I’m amazed you didn’t hump his leg while you were at it.’ 

‘Fuck off.’ Ross sniped. He leaned forward, chin on his arms and looked utterly disconsolate. ‘How is this even happening to me?’ 

‘Well, you’re supposed to be busting your cherry this weekend.’ Demelza said. ‘But no-one’s specified with who.’ She was looking positively maniacal with glee. Ross stared at her.

‘You are not fucking helping.’ he said. He knew he was blushing again and cursed his easily stimulated circulatory system. ‘And to be fair this is not how this weekend was supposed to go.’ Demelza sighed.

‘You know there’s nothing wrong with being a virgin right?’ she asked. ‘You shouldn’t let Francis and George get to you like that. And I know you like Elizabeth, but is trying to shag her really the best way to start things?’ She turned her bike opposite to his and then copied his position before reaching out and booping him on the nose. ‘I still think you’re the coolest guy I know, regardless of how much action your dick has seen.’ 

‘That’s probably because you don’t like dicks.’ Ross said, but he was smiling again. ‘So what do I do?’ 

‘Nothing.’ Demelza said. ‘Just see what happens but don’t make yourself do anything you don’t want to do.’ She looked at him speculatively. ‘What is it you want to do?’

‘I am not telling you.’ Ross said while his head filled with thoughts of just what Jim looked like under his wetsuit. 

‘You don’t need to.’ Demelza said. ‘It’s written all over your face. I bet by tonight you’ll be snogging.’

‘No, that’s you.’ Ross replied. ‘I can’t believe you sometimes.’

‘She’s hot as fuck.’ Demelza said. ‘I am not turning that down, not when it’s being offered. Besides, unlike you, I know what I want and I go get it.’ She grinned. ‘And with any luck I am so not sleeping in my tent tonight. And by sleeping I mean absolutely not sleeping.’ Her face grew thoughtful. ‘I bet she’s fucking brilliant with her mouth. And she has a tongue stud. Do you have any idea how good that makes it?’ 

‘Obviously not or we wouldn’t be in this position.’ Ross reached up and pulled a curl down in front of his face and regarded it moodily. ‘Why can’t I just spend the rest of my life wanking? It would be so much easier.’ 

‘Because it feels fucking amazing when it’s someone else’s hand.’ Demelza said cheerfully. ‘And when the mouth gets involved, you’re going to fucking walk over hot coals to get it.’ Ross glared at her and then his pocket vibrated. He took his phone out and stared at the message.

‘Fuck.’ he said. ‘Elizabeth’s there.’

‘And don’t you just look delighted to hear that.’ Demelza snickered. ‘Come on lover boy. Let’s go see Her Royal Highness.’

They rode back along the beach again. Because it was summer, it was still really light and as they approached Ross felt the butterflies start up in his stomach again. They got to footpath leading to the camp ground and dismounted, wheeling their bikes up the slope. When they got to the top, they noticed that the uni students had lit their fire and were sitting around it, beers in hand. Anne spotted them and got up, walking over to intercept them.

‘Fire’s on and we’re going to start cooking in about twenty minutes.’ she said by way of greeting, smiling at Demelza. ‘You still coming over baby girl?’ 

‘Try and stop me.’ Demelza replied. ‘But the beanpole has cold feet.’ Anne looked at Ross.

‘Jim’s a really nice guy.’ she said. ‘Nothing to be scared of, I promise.’ She winked at him and then went back to her friends.

‘See, Jim’s a really nice guy.’ Demelza said, given Ross a shove. They walked past the camp site and Ross snuck a look at where Jim was sitting on the ground, legs stretched out in front of him. He was dressed now in the white t-shirt and khaki shorts from earlier and he just happened to look up at the precise moment that Ross was looking at him. Their eyes met and Ross gasped and galloped behind the tents as quickly as possible. 

He was so busy avoiding looking at Jim and those blue-green eyes that he walked smack into Andrew. 

‘Mate.’ Andrew laughed. ‘Careful.’ He was holding a couple of paper cups. He held one out to Verity who was sitting on the ground, and the other out to the slim brunette sitting next to her. The sight of her should have made Ross’ hormones jump up and down, like they had up until twelve hours before. Instead he suddenly felt a sense of dread. 

‘Hi Ross.’ she said, and she gave him a smile that should have had him reeling. It didn’t and he couldn’t help noticing that there were no dimples attached to it.

‘Hi Elizabeth.’ he replied.

**********

Demelza was the first to abandon ship. Anne came over with a paper cup of rum and Fanta and a smile to bribe her to the other side. Demelza was hers in under a minute and walked off with her happily, hand in hand. Andrew and John and Flint had discovered that they knew a couple of people in common at Plymouth and he and Verity were also over the other side, chatting and cooking sausages on sticks over the fire. Francis and George were already too drunk to walk and they were quite happy to simply lie inside their tent, which meant that Ross was left to sit and talk to Elizabeth alone. Which of course had been the plan, at least it had been before he’d almost gotten himself killed and now was sitting in a state of deranged confusion. They had moved beyond the camp ground to the slope and were sitting on the grass drinking vodka and coke and looking at the sea. The sun had finally gone down but the sky was still pretty light. 

It was supposed to be everything Ross wanted, the whole point of this stupid trip to Newquay. But as they sat there and listened to the laughter coming from the other camp, he couldn’t help but think that he would rather be there and maybe edging closer to a certain blond person. Instead he put on an interested face as he listened to Elizabeth talk about the show jumping competition she was going to the following weekend. The longer they talked, the more he realised that while she was sweet and nice and all the other things he’d thought before, the crazy butterflies she’d set off before were not there anymore. There was another wave of laughter and his ears pricked up as he recognised a certain component in it that he’d learned was Jim’s.

‘So it looks like I’m in with a good chance.’ Elizabeth said. ‘Cavalier is really fit and if I win that means I could get through to regionals.’ Ross was looking in the direction of the fire and she nudged him. ‘Are you listening?’ Ross jumped at the touch, startled back into the here and now. 

‘Yeah, sorry.’ he said. ‘Look do you want to sit over there for a bit?’ 

‘Why?’ Elizabeth smiled at him. ‘I thought you wanted to talk to me?’ She shifted a little closer. ‘Isn’t that why you’re here.’

‘Yeah.’ Ross said, feeling slightly panicky. ‘It’s just we’re kind of being anti-social. They did invite all of us.’ 

‘Oh.’ Elizabeth frowned. ‘Okay, if you really want to.’ They got up and walked back to the camp, and Ross stopped to grab them both another drink. When they walked past the tents at the edge of the other camp site, Ross saw that the fire had banked down. He and Elizabeth hadn’t eaten but the others had. They were now toasting marshmallows over the coals. He was not surprised to see that Anne and Demelza were more or less draped all over each other. He did, however try to avoid looking at Jim. He most definitely did not need to see that the firelight made Jim’s hair shine red gold and cast shadows that made him look ridiculously hot. 

‘Oh look.’ Demelza’s tone was sickly sweet. ‘Were you two having a very stimulating discussion?’ 

‘I think I was boring Ross.’ Elizabeth said, sitting down. Ross followed suit and couldn’t help but notice that he was directly opposite Jim. 

‘You weren’t.’ he protested. ‘It’s just they have the marshmallows.’ 

‘Ah, yes.’ Anne said. She was grinning. ‘The marshmallows.’ She looked across at Jim, who gave her a cool stare back and Ross wanted the ground to swallow him up. Suddenly this looked like a colossally bad idea. Then he noticed that John and flint were also sitting together. John was leaning on one hand and Flint was back up against him, with John’s other arm around his neck. Then the penny dropped and he looked at Demelza who was watching him carefully. She gave him a smile that told him she knew exactly what he was thinking. 

‘I need to go to the bathroom.’ she announced. ‘Ross, come with me.’ She got up and looked at him expectantly. 

‘Okay.’ Ross said and got up as well. He followed her beyond the circle of light and out into the dark. They started walking towards the ablutions block.

‘So.’Demelza sounded like she had struck gold. She was almost bouncing with excitement. ‘Anne has assured me that they are all gay as fuck, and that includes Jim.’ She looked at Ross. ‘Oh. And by the way, you’d be so in there. Apparently he’s been acting like an idiot ever since John almost ran you over.’ 

‘Yeah, but what about Elizabeth?’ Ross said, kicking at the ground and almost falling over in the dark. ‘I can’t just abandon her to go and snog a guy I just met today.’ 

‘She’ll be fine.’ Demelza said and then her eyes twinkled. ‘Verity told me she was all over somebody else before you got there.’

‘Really?’ Ross was taken aback. 

‘Yup. Apparently you’re not even the one she’s interested in. Verity is pretty sure that she’s only here to make Francis jealous.’ Demelza said. 

‘Francis?’ Ross was astounded. ‘FRANCIS?’

‘So sorry to be the bearer of bad news.’ Demelza giggled. ‘But now that means you don’t have to feel bad about hooking up with Jim.’ 

‘I haven’t even spoken to him.’ Ross hissed. ‘This is getting ridiculous.’

‘Semantics.’ Demelza said airily. ‘You like him, he likes you. It’s fate.’

‘Christ.’ Ross muttered and stomped into the men’s bathroom. Demelza watched him go. 

‘However,’ she said to herself, an idea hatching in her mind. ‘No-one ever said fate couldn’t use a kick in the pants.’

***********

‘Well, now we’ve got him over to the fire.’ Anne murmured, her head turned so the others couldn’t hear her. ‘We just have to get them into a situation.’

‘He’s going to fucking kill us.’ John hissed, throwing a cautious look at Jim, who was sitting across the fire with Billy’s head in his lap. Flint was busy distracting him by engaging him and Andrew and Verity in conversation. The girl named Elizabeth had excused herself and gone back to go get another drink in spite of them offering her something from their stash. ‘And do you really think that’s the best way to do things. Why don’t we just get them rat arsed and let nature take its course?’ 

‘Because Jim pulls moves slower than glaciers advance.’ Anne insisted. ‘We only have until Monday. And may I remind you that this is the first person he’s shown an interest in since he and Michael broke up.’ 

‘Fine.’ John relented. ‘But you’re cleaning up the fall out if it goes tits up.’ 

‘It won’t.’ Anne said, a steely glint in her eye.

***********

Jim was not stupid, far from it in fact. And he had a healthy nose for conspiracies, especially when they were directed at him. He was also wise to his friends and what they considered to be an acceptable amount of interference in his currently non-existent love life. He watched Anne and John whispering and would have put down good money that they were trying to come up with a way to engineer some sort of encounter between him and Ross, which was what his name was as all three of the idiots he was with had nearly fallen over themselves to tell him. 

Jim scratched at Billy’s ears absently and listened only with partial attention to what Flint was saying. He would admit that he had felt a quite unexpected sense of disappointment when Ross had come back and not joined them for the barbeque. He’d noticed him going off to sit with the willowy dark haired girl that had arrived earlier and pretty much given up on there being any chance to get to know him better. 

But then Demelza had blithely informed him that Ross was in face very single.

That had set off the damn flood of interest again and Jim had found himself watching Ross intently on more than one occasion. He was so much cuter close up, with that thick dark curly hair and those doe eyes. A flurry of whispering to his right caught his attention and he glared at Anne and John who affected expressions of innocence. Jim sighed at their inability to even be the slightest bit subtle.

What the hell were they getting him into?

************

They got back to the camp and Ross noticed that Elizabeth was missing. He looked at Demelza who shrugged. 

‘I don’t know?’ she said. They stepped into the circle of light. The others looked up at tem and grinned. Demelza crossed over and went to sit next to Anne. ‘Where’s Elizabeth?’ she asked and Verity waved a hand in the direction of their campsite from where she was draped over Andrew’s lap. 

‘She went to get some more to drink.’ she said. ‘But that was a while ago.’ 

‘I’ll go find her.’ Ross said quickly, more to give himself time to think about what Demelza had said than anything else. He walked off into the dark and headed to their tents. To his surprise, Elizabeth was nowhere to be seen. He frowned and went to the tent George and Andrew were sharing which was where he’d last seen him and Francis. 

He peered in the open flap and saw that George was passed out on his sleeping bag and that he was snoring loudly. Ross didn’t wake him. Instead he went to the tent he was sharing with Francis and looked in. It was empty. 

No Francis. No Elizabeth. Maybe Demelza was right.

He went back to the camp fire and stood looking at the waiting faces.

‘So where is she?’ Demelza asked, her eyes twinkling. 

‘She’s gone and so is Francis.’ he replied, and saw the look that shot between Verity and Demelza.

‘Maybe she asked him to walk back with her to her camp site.’ Verity said, her dark brown eyes twinkling. 

‘Maybe she got eaten by wolves.’ Anne said and Demelza snorted and stuck her nose in Anne’s neck. ‘So, who wants to play a game?’ 

‘What did you have in mind?’ John asked and Anne grinned at him. 

‘How about a round of Never have I Ever?’ she said. ‘Flint. Go get the Apple Sourz.’

‘What is never Have I Ever?’ Verity asked. 

‘You’ll see.’ John replied, wincing as Flint used him as leverage to get to his feet. ‘Ross, you might want to sit down for this.’ Ross felt a flicker of trepidation. He had a feeling that he was about to be horribly set up and Demelza’s Cheshire Cat grin was not alleviating those fears in any way. He started to move to sit by Verity and Andrew and then the strangest thing happened. There seemed to be a general shift and suddenly the only place to sit was next to Jim. Jim seemed as surprised by this as he was and Ross caught the look he threw Anne. Then he looked at Ross.

‘Seems the circle has decided.’ he said, his voice sarcastic. Ross met his eyes and felt his stomach lurch. 

‘What the fuck, safety in numbers, right?’ he said and Jim frowned ever so slightly before suddenly breaking into a bright smile as Ross went over and sat next to him. 

‘I like the way you think.’ he replied. ‘Plus we have the dog.’ 

‘An excellent point.’ Flint said coming back with a stack of plastic shot glasses and a bottle of horribly green liquid. ‘Although I don’t think he’s going to be much help.’ He nodded at where Billy, sensing Ross on his other side, had now shifted his head to Ross’ lap. ‘That one is useless in a drinking game.’ He handed off the bottle and glasses to Anne. ‘Now, let me explain the rules.’


	5. Comedy Of Errors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thinsg are starting to get interesting. Very interesting.

‘Never have I ever eaten anything that lives on land and has more than four legs.’ Anne said and everyone watched as John and Flint drank their shots and then refilled them from the rapidly diminishing bottle.

‘That is disgusting.’ Verity exclaimed, crinkling her nose. She was quite tipsy now and sprawled across Andrew’s lap.

‘We were in Thailand.’ John protested. ‘And you know what they say. When in Rome, eat the crawly things.’

‘In our defense they were drunk and we were quite tasty.’ Flint said, and then realised there was an error somewhere. ‘Fuck, that stuff is ridiculous.’

‘It’s Sourz, James.’ Anne said. ‘It’s not that strong.’

‘That’s only because you haven’t been the one doing most of the drinking.’ Flint said, starting a slow slide from John’s shoulder to the ground. When his head got to John’s lap he looked up and smiled beatifically at him. ‘Hey you.’

‘Hey yourself.’ John said, returning the smile. ’I think Flint’s out.’

‘No, I’m fine.’ Flint said and then promptly closed his eyes and passed out.

‘He’s such a fucking lightweight.’ Jim said and gave Ross a sidelong smile. Ross returned it. 

‘I don’t care how tasty they were, it’s still gross.’ Verity declared. She held out her shot glass to be filled and screwed up her face in thought for her turn. ‘Never have I ever been so drunk that I have thrown up in my girlfriend’s shoes.’ She gave Andrew a meaningful look.

‘For fuck’s sake, Vee.’ he groaned. ‘It was one fucking time.’ He drank and refilled, looking a little cross eyed at that point. Then he noticed that it had just been him and looked confused. That made Ross smile. It had been relatively clean up to that point and that had made Ross relax a little. Jim was also going out of his way to make him feel at ease and they’d chatted a bit. He’d turned out to be sweet and funny and Ross now was pretty sure that he really did like him. Quite a bit in fact. 

Jim was leaning back against the van, Billy’s head now transferred back to him. He was running his fingers through Billy’s thick fur and toying with his ears and Ross was mesmerised by them, his now somewhat drunk brain whispering that those hands would probably feel really good if they were doing that to him.

‘You should have seen him when he was a puppy.’ Jim said to him and Ross suddenly remembered that they were talking about how Flint had got him. ‘He was just a ball of fur, so fucking cute.’ He looked up at Ross, his eyes darkened to almost teal by the firelight. 

‘I’ll bet.’ He managed to reply, although he was still smitten with just looking at Jim’s profile, backlit by the fire. He wasn’t really paying attention to the others anymore and it was only when he realised that no-one was speaking that Ross noticed they were all looking at him expectantly.

‘Ross,’ Demelza said. ‘It’s your go.’

‘Is it?’ Ross racked his brain for something to say. Then something jumped into his head and he went with it. In hindsight it was probably the worst thing he could have done. ‘Never have I ever been caught eating someone out in the bathroom at school.’ He was a little shocked at himself even as the words left his mouth, and realised that he was probably a little drunker than was safe. Demelza’s reaction was immediate. She went as pink as her hair and glared at him in a way that would probably have made him go up in flames if she’d had the power. Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

‘I’m going to get you for that, Ross Poldark.’ She hissed and drank her shot. ‘Just you fucking wait.’ Ross tried to bluff her out and then realised that Jim was doing the same thing next to him, only in his case he was looking at his three friends who were all grinning at him. 

‘Drink.’ said Anne and Jim’s expression became mutinous.

‘It doesn’t count.’ he replied. ‘Not even fucking close. Ross specifically said eating out.’

‘I hate to break it to you, but it does mate.’ Flint said, still with his eyes closed.

‘No, it doesn’t.’ Jim protested. ‘I was blowing him, not eating him out. It doesn’t count.’

‘Semantics. I do believe the rules of this particular game allow for a certain interpretation of events. Your mouth was on his cock. It counts.’ Anne said, folding her arms. ‘Hence you are required to drink.' Ross couldn’t help staring at Jim. He’d been hit by the words _blowing him _and the following statement about mouths on cocks was what finished him off. Jim looked sheepish as he caught Ross’ eye.__

‘Fine.’ he snapped. ‘But I protest, Miss Golightly.’

‘You can protest all you fucking want.’ Anne was smiling broadly. ‘Consider it payback for the one earlier about me going a week with no underwear.’

‘That was fucking mild compared to this.’ Jim said. ‘Now the gloves are coming off.’ He refilled his shot glass. ‘Never have I ever been caught finger fucking the Cadet C.O.’s daughter in the net loft.’

‘You dirty bastard.’ Anne said and drank her shot. ‘Of course you realise this means war.’

‘Shit.’ Flint raised his hand. ‘Can I go to bed please? This is only going to go downhill and I would like to keep some of my dignity intact.’ 

‘No!’ Jim and Anne both said in unison. John snorted with laughter and stroked Flint’s hair.

‘You don’t have any dignity, babe.’ he replied, accepting the bottle from Jim. ‘Never have I ever been so drunk that I’ve tried to deep throat my boyfriend and ended up puking all over his cock.’

‘Oh, you motherfucker.’ Flint said, opening one eye at him and then sitting up halfway to drink his shot. Across the fire, Ross and Demelza were staring in horror as Verity drank hers. Andrew had both hands over his face and was shaking his head.

‘Jesus, Vee.’ he muttered into his hands. ‘That was something no-one needed to know.’

********

It got so much worse.

Ross’ only consolation was that for every sexual statement that was uttered, he could sit and safely not drink. Some of the things being said though were making him blush to the roots of his hair though and he would probably require a few years’ worth of therapy to cope with the trauma. He now knew way more than he ever wanted to know about his cousin’s sex life, although most of the stuff Demelza had done he already knew. He was just recovering from Andrew’s revelation that he waxed his pubes when Demelza decided to hit low and dirty. 

‘You’re still sober.’ She said accusingly across the fire. Ross jumped in surprise at her accusatory tone and then got defensive, settling into a Poldark brood in an attempt to ward her off. 

‘No.’ he said. ‘I’ve been drinking.’

‘Not enough.’ she said and turned to Anne. ‘I would like to suggest an addendum to the rules, Madam Chairlady.’ 

‘By all means.’ Anne’s eyes were twinkling with evil intent. ’What did you have in mind?’

‘Well, it’s my round next.’ Demelza said. ‘If I get it so Ross is the only one who has to drink, then he has to drink everyone’s shots.’

‘Dirty poker, old girl.’ Flint mumbled from his semi-coma. ‘I like it. Seconded.’ He raised his hand again and John grabbed it and kissed the knuckles.

‘Thirded.’ he said. 

‘Fourthded.’ Verity hiccoughed from across the fire and Ross gave her a look of betrayed astonishment.

‘Not you too.’ he said and she giggled. 

‘You are far too sober.’ she replied. ‘And they know about me throwing up on Andrew’s dick, which is far more embarrassing.’

‘Christ.’ Ross wanted to fall through the floor. He gave Demelza a pleading look, but she had meant what she said when she’d promised to get him. ‘All right, just get it bloody over with.’ Demelza smiled the smile of a conquering hero. 

‘Never have I ever fallen for someone on the first day I met them and been too chicken to make a move.’ she said. Ross wanted to die, just suffer something reasonably quick and fatal and keel over before he could suffer the same from embarrassment. He was about to resign himself to having to drink seven shots in addition to his own when Jim picked up his and drank it. The he looked at Ross and there was something in his eyes that went right through Ross’ chest, like a flash on intense heat. One dimple flashed as he gave him a half smile. 

Ross met his eyes and held them as he drank his shot. Jim watched him and then pushed a grumbling Billy off his lap and got to his feet, a little unsteady. 

‘We’re done here.’ he said and then held his hand out to Ross. ‘Come on. Let’s get the fuck out of here before our so called friends set us up any more.’ Ross looked at the offered hand and then threw caution to the wind and took it. Jim smiled at him and led him out of the firelight towards the beach, leaving behind a circle of conspiratorial smiles.

***********

They walked down the footpath and not once did Ross feel like holding Jim’s hand was weird. Instead, when Jim tightened his grip as he guided Ross down the uneven path, his heart jumped and started thumping in his ears. They got to the sand and Jim let him go and Ross felt incredibly disappointed. To hide it, he shoved both hands in his pockets and fell into step alongside Jim. 

‘So that was interesting.’ Jim said. ‘I think they couldn’t have been more obvious if they were holding up giant neon signs that said ‘just kiss him already’.’ That caught Ross’ attention and he stopped walking.

‘Would you want to kiss me?’ he blurted out and Jim turned around and looked at him. 

‘Would you want me to kiss you?’ he asked, and Ross took his hands out and folded his arms.

‘I asked first’ he said. Jim laughed. 

‘If I didn’t we wouldn’t be down here.’ he replied and carried on walking. Ross’s brain took a moment to catch up and then he just stood there staring. Jim got a few feet away and looked back at him, his smile clearly visible in the moonlight.

‘So is that a yes you want to kiss me?’ Ross asked, just managing not to squeak. 

‘It’s a yes I want to kiss you. Now come on unless you want to give our audience something to gawk at.’ Jim laughed and carried on walking. Ross let him get a few more feet down the sand before his body finally woke up to what had just occurred and kicked him in the arse to run after him. 

‘What do you mean audience?’ he asked, a little out of breath. Jim stopped walking and pointed at the top of the slope. Ross followed his arm and then saw a row of figures silhouetted against the light from the fire. 

‘That.’ Jim said. ‘One thing you have to know about my friends is that they are unreasonably nosy.’ 

‘Sounds like we have that in common.’ Ross said. ‘I think Demelza was trained by MI6.’ Jim laughed and Ross found that he liked the sound very much. 

‘I’d like to find out what else we might have in common.’ he said. ‘Besides your insane need to get run over.’ 

‘You have that too?’ Ross asked. 

‘Sometimes.’ Jim replied. ‘But out there.’ He nodded at the water. 

‘What’s it like?’ Ross asked. ‘I’ve always wondered.’

‘Amazing. Getting up on a wave is the best feeling in the world. It’s like being able to fly.’ Jim said. He turned, walking backwards with his hands in his pockets as he looked at Ross. ‘You ever tried it?’ 

‘No.’ Ross said. 

‘But you ride, right?’ Jim said. ‘That’s cool too.’

‘Yeah, but I’m not as good as Dem.’ Ross said. ‘She’s amazing.’ 

‘Maybe, but I think I’d rather watch you.’ Jim said, grinning at him. ‘You’re very fucking cute.’ The compliment took Ross completely by surprise. 

‘Cute?’ he repeated, and then could have kicked himself for sounding like an idiot.

‘Very fucking cute.’ Jim replied. ‘Even when you’re making obscene gestures at me.’

‘Oh God, I’m sorry about that.’ Ross muttered. ‘You must think I’m a total wanker.’ 

‘Actually it was a very good way to get my attention.’ Jim said. ‘So you’re doing A levels?’

‘Yeah.’ Ross replied. ‘Art and IT. I want to do Graphic Design.’ He was finally walking alongside Jim, who had turned back around the right way. ‘Flint said you were studying something with Marine Technology?’ 

‘Marine and Composites Tech.’ Jim said. ‘I’m going into Naval Architecture when I’m done.’

‘What’s that?’ Ross asked. ‘Is it like regular architecture?’

‘Yeah, but instead of designing buildings I’ll be designing boats.’ Jim said. ‘I’m going into the Defence Engineering and Science Group when I graduate on a fast track programme.’ 

‘Really?’ Ross asked. ‘Does that mean you’ll be on a ship?’

‘Actually I’ll be based in London.’ Jim said. ‘I have to do quite a bit more studying before they’ll let me have a go at the big ships.’ 

‘Wow.’ Ross said. ‘That’s quite intimidating actually.’

‘It’s shouldn’t be.’ Jim laughed. ‘We probably need a lot of the same skills actually.’ He stopped. ‘Okay I think we’re far enough.’ 

‘Far enough for what?’ Ross said without thinking. 

‘This.’ Jim replied and then stepped into his space, before putting both hands either side of Ross’ neck and standing on tip toe as he leaned in and kissed him. 

********

‘Fuck, I can’t see a goddamn thing.’ Anne said. She lowered the binoculars she was holding. ‘The little bastard’s taken him out of range.’

‘Do I even want to know why you have night vision binoculars?’ Demelza said. Anne gave her an evil grin. 

‘Best not ask questions you may not want answers to.’ she replied. ‘Oh well, if they don’t come back in an hour that means they’ve probably been washed out to sea. Either that or they’re fucking on the beach, which I don’t recommend.’ 

‘They won’t be.’ John said, peering over Anne’s head. ‘Jim’s far too sensible to fuck him down there, and he hasn’t got any condoms.’

‘Or lube.’ Flint said. He was leaning on John’s back. ‘They’ll come back here.’ 

‘Maybe they’re just snogging.’ Verity said. 

‘I wish I was snogging.’ Andrew muttered. She gave him a smack on the arm. ‘What? It’s late and we’re all standing here like a bunch of stalkers.’

‘He has a point.’ Demelza said. ‘And I have more important things to do than stand here and watch them suck face.’ She gave Anne a look that made her intentions very clear. 

‘Okay, guess the show’s over.’ Anne said, getting up. ‘Would you like me to walk you to your tent, young lady?’ 

‘No.’ Demelza said. ‘I’m sleeping in yours.’ She grinned at Verity. ‘You and Drew can have some private time.’

‘YES!’ Andrew said. He promptly lifted a squealing Verity over his shoulder and carried her off in the direction of the campsite on the other side. 

‘Well, that’s our signal to hit the hay.’ John said. He straightened up and reached out to steady Flint. ‘Bed time for you, big boy.’ He turned Flint around and herded them towards their tent, Billy padding after them. ‘Night, all.’ 

‘Guess that just leaves us.’ Anne said. She reached out and ran her forefinger down Demelza’s nose. ‘Crazy social engineering aside, this has been a lot of fun.’

‘Well, it’s about to get so much better.’ Demelza said, stepping forward put her arms around Anne’s neck. ‘Now you’d better snog my face off before I go look for a better offer.’

‘Yes Ma’am.’ Anne said and kissed her. 

*********

Down on the beach, Ross was in heaven. Jim’s mouth tasted like salt and apples and he was currently brushing Ross’ tongue with his own and it was making Ross weak in the knees, so it was a good thing they were sitting down side by side. All the other guys he’d snogged had been rough and severely lacking in technique, but Jim was gentle and slow and it was probably the best kissing Ross had ever experienced hands down. 

They finally separated and Ross couldn’t help chasing Jim’ mouth a little. 

‘Okay.’ he said, feeling breathless and unsteady and knowing it had fuck all to do with the alcohol. ‘I think I might need you to do that again.’ Jim laughed and looked at his watch. 

‘We’ve been doing it for an hour.’ he said and Ross frowned and grabbed Jim’s wrist to look at the luminous numbers on the face of his watch. 

‘Fuck.’ he said. ‘It’s like three in the morning.’

‘I know.’ Jim said. ‘I should probably get you back, Cinderella.’ He smiled at Ross’ look of disappointment. ‘Your friends probably think I’ve kidnapped you.’ 

‘Do we have to?’ Ross asked. ‘This is nice.’ 

‘Yeah, but I need sleep.’ Jim said. ‘I don’t do so well if I don’t get like at least a couple of hours. I turn into a bear.’ He got up and brushed the sand off his shorts and then held out a hand and pulled Ross up. ‘Besides I’m a gentleman.’ He took Ross’ hand more firmly ad intertwined their fingers as they started to walk back. ‘So, can I take you out tomorrow?’ 

‘Like a date?’ Ross asked, feeling his face heat up. 

‘Yes, like a date.’ Jim replied. ‘I’m going down to the Lizard tomorrow if you want to come with me. Unless you’ve got shit to do.’ 

‘No.’ Ross said. ‘We can do that.’

‘Good.’ Jim said. He was smiling.

They got back to the slope and walked up slowly. At the top Ross stopped. 

‘So, I’ll see you tomorrow?’ he asked and Jim nodded. 

‘I’ll come get you around six?’ he asked. ‘That way we can get down there early.’ 

‘That’s only three hours of sleep.’ Ross protested. 

‘It’s fine.’ Jim said. ‘If you’re still sleepy you can crash in the back while I go surf and then we can do stuff when you wake up.’ 

‘Okay.’ Ross said. He wanted to kiss Jim again, but he was not sure how to initiate. But then Jim leaned in and Ross met him halfway. This kiss was soft and when it was over, Ross melt like his insides were melting. 

‘Night, Ross.’ Jim said and he let go of Ross’ hand and started to walk to his van. Ross watched him open the door and get in after giving Ross a little wave. He felt like skipping, but he forced himself to walk slowly back to his own campsite. As he approached the tent he was sharing with Francis he heard a strange noise. Curious he unzipped the front and stuck his head inside. What he saw had him retreating at light speed as his ears were assaulted by a high pitched scream. 

‘Sorry.’ he almost yelled and then almost ran over to Andrew and Verity’s tent. He scratched at the front flap and eventually he was greeted by a sleepy looking Andrew.

‘What?’ he mumbled. 

‘Francis and Elizabeth are shagging in our tent.’ Ross whispered. 

‘Are you sure?’ Verity’s head suddenly popped out as well.

‘I just saw her boobs.’ Ross said. ‘I’m pretty fucking sure. I can’t sleep in there.’

‘So go crash with George.’ Andrew said. ‘You can use my sleeping bag.’ 

‘Okay.’ Ross said. He got up. ‘Night.’

‘Night.’ they chorused and zipped up the tent again. He stumbled over to George’s tent but when he got there he staggered back in the face of a wall of smell that had him gagging when he stuck his head in the open tent flap.

‘Jesus Christ, George.’ he hissed. ‘What the fuck?’

‘Yeah, I may have puked on Drew’s sleeping bag.’ George said, sounding completely out of it. ‘Too many Doritos.’ He waved a hand ineffectually. ‘It’ll be fine. I’ll just spray some Lynx.’

‘No.’ Ross said, backing out rapidly. ‘It’s fine.’ He managed to get to his feet. 

‘Suit yourself.’ George muttered and rolled over. Ross heaved an annoyed sigh. 

‘Great.’ he said. ‘So where the fuck am I supposed to sleep?’ He looked in the direction of Jim’s van, an idea hatching in his head. 

There were a thousand reasons why it was a bad idea, but they all dissolved in the face of that one idea which was being in close physical proximity to Jim and somewhere comfortable to sleep. He walked across both campsites and knocked on the back window before he could change his mind. 

He half expected to get no reaction, but then the door opened and Jim leaned out. He had no shirt on. The sight went straight to Ross’ cock. It did not pass go, it did not collect two hundred Pounds and it certainly did not care that he had no idea where to begin with regards to actual sexual intercourse. Instead it decided to give him a raging erection and the urge to just throw himself at Jim, no questions asked.

‘Francis is fucking Elizabeth in our tent and George’s been sick on the sleeping bag I’m supposed to be using.’ he rattled off. ‘Can I sleep with you?’ He suddenly realised what he’d said and put his hand over his mouth. ‘Shit, that’s not what I meant.’ Jim gave him an amused look.

‘Really?’ he asked, and then he dropped his eyes and gave Ross’ crotch a very deliberate stare. ‘That’s not what your cock is saying.’ 

‘Fuck.’ Ross was torn between suddenly being ridiculously turned on and so embarrassed he wanted to die. ‘This has been the weirdest fucking day of my life. I came down here because I’m a virgin and all my friends wanted me to hook up with Elizabeth and now she’s fucking my cousin and I really like you and I think I want to have sex with you.’ It all came out in a flood of words before he could even think about what he was saying. Jim listened, his eyes getting progressively wider. When Ross stopped he seemed to consider things before stepping back.

‘Well then, we might as well jump down the rabbit hole.’ he said and stood back to give Ross room. ‘Get in here, Poldark.’ Ross’ brain didn’t even get a look in on this decision. He climbed in and Jim closed the door behind them.


	6. First Lesson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He's in the van. Now what? ;D

Ross wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. He looked around him in surprise. The inside of Jim’s van wasn’t at all what he thought it would be. It was panelled in strips of pine and the whole back section was taken up by a bed that could very comfortably be called king sized. Not only that, but it was properly made up with pillows and a duvet in light grey and covered with a sea green woven blanket. There was a string of fairy lights around the top of the roof that gave off a soft light. On the floor between the bed and the front seats was a black duffle bag full of Jim’s clothes, a mini fridge and a wooden crate full of books. There was another book open and face down on the bed. He also noticed that Jim had music on and that the music in question was She Wants Revenge. 

He turned around as Jim slid the door closed and then he realised things were a little cramped. Jim smiled and moved past him to get on the bed. He leaned back on both hands.

‘So this is unexpected.’ he said, his dimples coming out to play. ‘Shoes.’ Ross toed his converse off and then decided to get rid of the socks as well, seeing that Jim was barefoot. When he was done he tried to straighten up and almost hit his head on the roof. 

‘I kind of ran out of places to sleep.’ He said, still embarrassed by his little outburst outside. ‘And this seemed like a good idea.’

‘Indeed.’ Jim was looking at him in a way that made Ross’ pulse jump and stutter. ‘Did you mean what you said?’

‘Maybe. Yes.’ Ross was now sweating. He could feel it running down his back under his t-shirt. It was hot in Jim’s van, but that wasn’t the only reason. ‘I don’t really know what to do though.’ Jim moved over on the bed to make room for him.  
‘You could start by coming here.’ he said, his voice coloured by the smile on his face. ‘I promise I don’t bite.’ He blinked once slowly and for some reason it lit up Ross’ hormones like a match touched to a line of lighter fluid. It was suddenly very difficult to breathe evenly and Ross was sure he’d never been as hard as he was at that moment. His jeans felt far too tight, a delicious pressure against his cock that made him want to climb all over Jim, kiss his face and rub up against him like a horny cat. He took a deep breath and then moved to the edge of the bed and climbed on, crawling on all fours up to where he was next to Jim. Jim watched him, and Ross was amazed to see him bite his bottom lip. He ended up twisting around so he could sit, legs stretched out in front of him. Jim sat up next to him and Ross ducked his head, heat flooding his face as Jim reached out and put hand to Ross’ shoulder, turning Ross to look at him. 

‘You don’t have to be scared.’ he said, his voice pitching low. ‘I’m not going to fuck you.’ The rush of feeling in Ross’ stomach made him almost feel sick.

‘You don’t want to?’ it sounded like a plea. 

‘We’ve both been drinking.’ Jim said. ‘And sex is a big thing in my book. I don’t jump into bed with people I’ve just met. And you shouldn’t either.’ He smiled. ‘So you can sleep here, but that’s all we’re doing.’ He looked at Ross, and his eyes were clear and earnest. ‘Is that okay with you?’ Ross wasn’t sure whether he wanted to cry with disappointment or relief. 

‘It’s okay with me.’ he said but he couldn’t help the dejection in his voice. He looked down. ‘Seems to be the story of my life so far.’ Jim’s voice was gentle when he spoke. 

‘Don’t be like that. You shouldn’t jump into this. Especially if it’s your first time.’ He sighed. ‘Trust me on this, you want it to be something that you’ll be doing because you want to.’

‘I do want to.’ Ross replied. ‘But I understand. I’m just some kid and why the fuck would a hot guy like you want me?’ He frowned and Jim gave him a look of disbelief. 

‘That’s not it at all.’ he said. ‘I thought that spending an hour kissing you on the beach would have been some indication.’ He gave Ross a reassuring smile. ‘I like you just fine, Ross.’ 

‘But not enough to have sex with me.’ Ross pouted. He was now feeling seriously dejected and it came out in his voice. ‘Fuck, I shouldn’t have come here. I shouldn’t have said all those things. I’ll go.’ He started to move forward, intending to grab his shoes and go before he humiliated himself any further. 

‘Jesus.’ Jim grabbed his arm and held him back. ‘That’s not what I meant at all.’ Ross looked at him, fighting back angry tears now, and was amazed to see a look of uncertainty on his face. ‘I just don’t want you to do something you’ll regret. It has nothing at all to do with not wanting you. If anything, I’m scaring myself with how much I want you right now.’ 

‘You’re just saying that.’ Ross said. He bit his lip hard to quell the feelings bubbling up inside him. He was about to twist out of Jim’s grip when he caught the way Jim was looking at him and caught his breath. There was something in Jim’s eyes that burned. He reached out and took Ross’ hand and then very slowly and very deliberately drew it down and put it on the front of his jeans, pressing down so Ross could feel that he was hard under his palm. 

Ross gasped audibly. While he’d kissed a few other guys and had fooled around with a couple of girls, he’d never experienced anything like this before. The outline of Jim’s cock was visible under the shorts he wore and when Ross tightened his fingers experimentally, Jim drew in a sharp breath and Ross felt his cock move under his hand. He looked up into Jim’s eyes and felt everything inside him start to burn in reply to what he saw there. 

‘I do want to.’ he said, but it came out as barely a breath. 

‘Fuck.’ Jim sounded like he could barely speak. ‘Don’t do this. Don’t look at me like that.’ He was so close now that all it would take was a single movement for Ross to kiss him. So he did. 

It was tentative and barely a brush of mouths, but the effect it had on Jim was instantaneous. He reached for the back of Ross’ head, fingers tangling in his hair and pulled him in. He licked once at Ross’ mouth and Ross opened it without hesitation, letting him in and kissing back as the heat inside him surged and spilled over. He didn’t care that he was probably slobbering all over Jim, all he wanted was to taste him. Jim made a strange noise and then he was kissing Ross hard, tongue invading his mouth in a way that made Ross whimper. He couldn’t help it and had to reach out to steady himself with his other hand. There was a moment of perfect equilibrium and then they toppled over onto the bed, Jim on top of him. 

Ross’s head hit the bed, and he felt everything go bright and deafening as Jim moved and he had to spread his legs so Jim could lie between them. Jim was a solid comforting weight on top of him, and he moaned as Jim settled, arms on either side of Ross’ head ad bracing himself on his elbows. They kept kissing, hard and sloppy, until Jim moved his hips and that was enough to send Ross’ senses into overdrive as Jim’s cock connected with his. 

It was unlike anything Ross had ever felt. Besides his own nocturnal adventures there had been exactly three handjobs from one of the girls he’d fooled around with. None of the guys he’d kissed had even gotten to that stage. And all of them had not prepared him for how completely mind blowing this would feel. He threw his head back, breaking away from the kiss and a sound escaped him that he didn’t recognise. He was working purely on instinct, and when Jim thrust down harder Ross arched up to meet him, the friction so good he was pretty sure that if Jim did it one more time he would come. He felt Jim’s mouth on his throat, his tongue dragging over Ross’ skin and it burned as surely as if someone was holding a hot knife against him. He shut his eyes, trying desperately to hold on.

‘Let go.’ Jim’s voice was heavy and sweet in his ear. ‘Come for me, baby boy.’ He thrust hard once more and it hit Ross like he’d taken a fall onto asphalt from the top of a ramp. He came harder than he ever had before, burying his face in Jim’s shoulder and trying to stifle the sharp cry that left him. Feelings flooded him, a blissful wave of endorphins that kept him buoyed up for what seemed like forever and when he came down he realised they were kissing again, slower this time. He drowned in it, the sure movements of Jim’s tongue against his own enough to make it so good that he wanted to cry. 

Jim finally pulled away from him and Ross lay there, his chest heaving, and contemplated that he’d just come in his pants after less than a minute of dry humping on Jim’s bed. He should have felt embarrassed, but instead all he could do was smile like a maniac. Jim was kneeling over him now, braced on his hands.

‘Damn.’ he said, his dimples shadows on his face. ‘Hair trigger.’ He sat back on his heels and grinned at Ross. ‘How fast can you get hard again?’ Ross took a moment to be able to reply.

‘Pretty quickly.’ he panted. 

‘Good.’ Jim said. ‘Because I am so not done with you.’ He moved backwards until he could undo the button on his shorts. ‘My turn.’ Ross watched and the he realised that he should probably offer to return the favour, or at least do something. 

‘Do you want me to…’ he started but Jim shook his head. 

‘No, I’m good.’ He shoved his shorts down and Ross was suddenly unable to tear his eyes away. He’d never seen another man’s hard cock in real life before and when Jim took his out he stared. ‘I just need to take the edge off and then we can play. Pull your shirt up.’ Ross didn’t hesitate, grabbing the hem and yanking it up so his stomach was exposed before looking back up.

‘Is this okay?’ he asked and felt a little kick inside when he saw that Jim was staring just as badly. 

‘Fuck.’ He said and leaned forward to run his hand down Ross’ body, leaving a trail of fire in his fingers’ wake. ‘You really have no idea how fucking gorgeous you are, do you?’ He looked at Ross. ‘Can I come on you?’ That was the last thing Ross expected him to say and also the last thing he expected to make him breathless like it did. He was certainly used to coming on himself but this surprised him. He felt the heat wash through him again and when he opened his mouth it was to moan softly. He had never thought the idea of another guy coming on him would make him that hot, but fuck if his body wasn’t suddenly raring to go again. 

‘Yes.’ he said. ‘You can.’ Jim smiled and moved forward so he was just resting on Ross’ thighs. He locked eyes with him and Ross got lost in them. He heard Jim’s hand moving but was too shy to look down, even though he desperately wanted to. Jim must have seen this because his smile grew wicked. 

‘You can watch me.’ he said. ‘I want you to.’ His permission gave Ross the push he needed and he looked down, his eyes widening as he watched Jim’s hand on his own cock. 

‘Oh fuck…’ he blurted. ‘That’s so hot.’ He looked back up at Jim. His own cock was steadily getting hard again, a record even by his horny teenager standards. ‘Can I?’ He looked back down at Jim’s cock. 

‘Only if you want to.’ Jim was breathless. Ross nodded and reached down and Jim let go of himself and took Ross’ hand and guided it to him, wrapping it around his cock with his own hand over it. He was solid and warm, the skin velvety soft, and Ross watched eagerly as Jim moved their hands, building up his rhythm again. Ross was lost in it, the sensations quickly becoming overwhelming. He looked up and watched in fascination at the emotions playing across Jim’s face before he gasped and dropped his head and then Ross felt the heat on his stomach and his hand and realised what had just happened. 

He lay there, listening to Jim’s ragged breathing, not quite sure what to do until Jim let go of his hand and moved back from him. He eased off the end of the bed and dug around for a moment. Ross heard him moving Then Jim was back on the bed, a towel in his hand and his shorts buttoned up. In spite of that the signs were still there for Ross to see in the too bright eyes and the flush on his cheeks. In the wake of his orgasm, Jim positively glowed and it made him even more stunning than Ross was quickly realising he was. 

‘Here.’ He said and Ross realised that in addition to the towel he was holding out a pair of shorts. ‘You might want to change out of those. That brought him back down to earth and the realisation that he could probably do with a change of underwear as well as cleaning Jim’s semen off his stomach and hand. That thought made him feel bizarrely shy. He reached for the towel.

‘Thank you.’ he said and Jim’s smile came back.

‘Well, that was rather formal considering I just came all over you.’ he said, his voice light and teasing. ‘Which I should apologise for. Not very gentlemanly of me.’ He sat with his back against the side of the van and tilted his head back. ‘Fuck, that was ridiculously good.’

‘Really?’ Ross was surprised. ‘It was kind of quick.’ He wondered if he should do something like turn around, not quite sure if he wanted to take his jeans and briefs off in front of Jim. It must have shown in his face because Jim gave him a half smile and closed his eyes. 

‘I promise not to look.’ he said and Ross felt a rush of gratitude. He cleaned his hand and then wiped down his stomach before he undid his jeans and wriggled out of them, discarding them and his sticky underwear on the floor of the van before getting into the shorts Jim had given them. When he was done he did the same as Jim, moving to the other side. 

‘I’m done.’ he said and Jim opened his eyes. ‘You must think I’m being stupid.’ 

‘No.’ Jim replied. ‘And in answer to your earlier question, yes it really was.’ He smiled again. ‘And that was just the first round to kind of calm us both down.’ He drew up his knees, resting his elbows on them. ‘It means that I can think straight. You’ve been kind of messing up my head all day.’ he took a deep breath and then blew it out. ‘Now we can talk about this.’

‘Talk about it?’ Ross was confused. ‘Like, what we just did.’ Jim laughed and then moved so he could crawl across the bed. He came towards Ross and pinned him in against the side of the van, lowering his head and kissing Ross on the mouth. Ross felt all the butterflies start up again and when Jim pulled back he was right back where he had been before. He stared into Jim’s eyes and Jim nudged his nose with his own. 

‘No, baby boy.’ he said. ‘Talk about all things we’re still going to do.’ 

**********

Demelza raised her head. 

‘Did you hear that?’ she said. ‘They’ve stopped.’ The green head between her thighs gave a non-comittal hum and Demelza fell back down as Anne’s clever tongue distracted her from the fact that her best friend was most likely achieving his life’s ambition a few feet from where she was getting the best oral sex of her life. 

That though made her giggle and then she gasped as Anne decided enough was enough and really went to town.

********

‘Was that the first time you’ve done that?’ Jim asked. Ross nodded. 

‘I haven’t been with anyone before.’ He said and sipped the coke Jim and he were sharing. ‘I mean I’ve fooled around with a couple of girls but you’re…’ He trailed off and Jim smiled. 

‘I’m your first guy?’ he asked. Ross settled for nodding, his face on fire. He was veering between being so embarrassed that he wanted to crawl under the duvet and hide, and also being ready to just lie down and let Jim do anything he wanted to him. His body was almost tingling with the awareness of how easy it would be to just lean over and touch Jim, run his hands over his tanned skin and lick at his mouth and ask him to do everything to him.

‘Yes.’ he replied, still studying the pattern on the blanket. ‘But I haven’t been with anyone properly. But that was really fucking good.’ The last words were soft, a barely audible confession. 

‘All right.’ Jim said. ‘Serious talk now. We can do anything you want. But I have two conditions. I will only do it if you tell me to. You have to ask for it and you have to be straight with me. If anything makes you uncomfortable or it hurts you tell me to stop. Can you do that, Ross?’ Ross looked at him and saw that Jim’s face was serious, even a little stern. 

‘Yes.’ he replied. ‘I can do that. What’s the second thing?’ Jim gave him a crooked smile. 

‘Well, it’s no fun playing by myself.’ he said. ‘I know you want me to do things to you but I want you to be able to do things to me as well. Anything you want to try or do, just ask me. Nothing’s off limits. If it’s cool we can do it, and if not I’ll tell you. But I’m not going to freak out or think you’re weird.’ He took the coke back from Ross and finished it, then chucked the can off the bed. ‘And I am not going to even consider not using a condom. That’s a non-negotiable area.’ He moved and lay off the bed to grab the washbag in his bag. ‘You cool with that?’

‘Uh-huh.’ Ross was watching him. Jim continued to lie off the bed and then he chucked something back over his shoulder and Ross watched as a handful of condoms scattered themselves of the bed. He picked one up and studied it as Jim came back up with what looked like a bottle of clear shower gel in his hand. For a moment it eluded him and then Ross realised what it was and this time nothing could stop the blush from coming. Jim saw his face and grinned. He held the bottle out to him and Ross took it hesitantly, almost as if it would burn him. He read the name on the bottle and looked at Jim.

‘Never underestimate the importance of lube.’ Jim said with a smile. ‘If you learn one thing tonight that’s it.’ That brought up another question that had been bothering Ross.

‘It’s going to hurt, isn’t it?’ he asked. 

‘It doesn’t have to.’ Jim said. ‘If, and that’s entirely conditional on wat you want, we have sex, I am going to try and make it as good as I can for you. And that means you have to be relaxed and we use a fuckload of that.’ He nodded at the bottle in Ross’ hand. ‘But that’s the endgame. We have a lot of things we can do before we even get there.’ 

‘Did it hurt your first time?’ Ross was still reading the bottle, his shyness starting to evaporate at Jim’s casual tone. 

‘Like a fucking bitch.’ Jim laughed. ‘Let’s just say neither of us were very prepared. I know a lot better now.’ He moved back to sit next to Ross. ‘So where do you want to start?’ He looked at Ross and Ross’ brain almost shut down under the sheer number of ideas his body started screaming at it. He decided to go with the simplest one.

‘Can we kiss some more?’ he asked. Jim’s smile widened and the dimples came out to play. 

‘Sure thing, baby boy.’ he said and the nickname made Ross turn into goo on the inside. He leaned forward and Ross noticed that his eyes weren’t blue all the way through, but had tiny golden flecks around the irises. Then Jim’s mouth was on his and it was all Ross could do not to pass out from the heat in his chest. Then he remembered what Jim had said and this time he was the one who initiated, a tentative touch of his tongue to Jim’s mouth. To his astonishment, Jim made a little growling noise and opened his mouth, responding with an answering touch. Emboldened by this Ross pressed in and took control, and Jim moved one hand to the back of his head, holding Ross still as they kissed for what seemed like an age, letting Ross test his limits. They quickly fell into a rhythm that had them both shaking.

Fuck me.’ Jim murmured when they separated. ‘You learn bloody fast.’ His breathing was quick and shallow. ‘Again.’ This time he was the one who dominated and Ross let out a whine as he felt himself starting to get to the point where he was so hard it almost hurt. It got a little messy, saliva making it wet and deep and then Jim suddenly pushed him away. 

‘Christ.’ he panted. ‘I’m so fucking hard for you again.’ He took a deep shuddering breath. ‘This is going to be more difficult that I thought it was.’

‘What is?’ Ross asked, scared that Jim wanted to stop because right at that moment he thought he was probably going to die if he didn’t get to get off again. 

‘Controlling myself around you.’ Jim replied and that sent Ross’ confidence skyrocketing. 

‘Can I ask you something?’ he said and Jim nodded.

‘Of course.’ he replied. ‘What?’ Ross steeled himself. 

‘Can I see you?’ he asked. ‘You know, without your clothes on.’ Jim smiled. Then he turned and lay down and undid his shorts, wriggling out of them and kicking them off. Ross watched him and the stared, captivated by the body in front of him. Jim’s skin was marked by perfectly defined tan lines and the muscles of his chest and stomach flexed and shifted as he made himself comfortable. There was a line of dark gold hair that led from just below his navel and down to where Ross’s eyes landed and then couldn’t look away. 

He took him all in, then slowly reached out his hand and let his fingers drift along the length of Jim’s cock, lying hard against his stomach. It was at once so like his own and also completely different at the same time. The light touch elicited a moan and Jim closed his eyes and tightened the grip he had on the pillow under his head.

‘Fuck, Ross…’ he said and his voice was rough. ‘You don’t know what you’re doing to me.’ He arched up as Ross took him in his hand. ‘Fuck baby boy, that feels so good.’ Ross looked back at him and saw that Jim’s pupils were blown wide. ‘You better stop before I come all over you again.’ 

‘What if I don’t want to?’ he said and tightened his hand. He couldn’t get over how he was affecting Jim, quickly becoming addicted to how Jim’s breath hitched and caught as he moved his hand. ‘What if I want you to come?’ he looked down at his hand on Jim’s cock and then an idea occurred to him. On impulse he leaned down and licked tentatively at the head, already shiny with pre-come. He hadn’t known what to really expect, and it’s slightly salty taste wasn’t nearly as unpleasant as he’d expected. He licked again.

‘Jesus…’ Jim sounded like he was dying. ‘Oh God…Ross.’ He was shaking. ‘You don’t have to…’ Ross lifted his head, using his hand again.

‘You said I could do anything to you that I wanted, right?’ he asked. ‘Well, I want you to teach me how to do this.’ Jim struggled to his elbows and looked at him. 

‘Are you sure?’ he asked. ‘You don’t want me to do it first?’ 

‘No.’ Ross said. ‘I want to.’ Their eyes locked. ‘I want you to show me.’ He frowned a little, like he always did when he was determined. Jim gave him a searching look and then nodded. 

‘All right.’ he said. ‘But can I ask you to take your clothes off? I would like to look at you while you do it.’ That gave Ross pause. 

‘Okay.’ he said, feeling a little unsure. Then he looked at Jim and the want he saw on his face spurred him into action. He reached for the back of his t-shirt, pulling it over his head and shoving it aside. He took a deep breath and then did the same with his shorts, waiting for the ridicule he felt sure would be coming. He’d never been particularly comfortable with his own body, too gangly and uncoordinated for his liking. He looked away but then was dragged back when Jim spoke.

‘Fuck, you are so gorgeous.’ It was his turn to stare now. ‘Christ, you really have no idea do you?’ he looked up at Ross. ‘Where the fuck did you come from?’ Ross ducked his head to hide the delighted smile on his face. 

‘So what do I do?’ he asked and Jim took a deep breath. 

‘Go slow.’ he said. ‘It’s going to feel weird the first time. Don’t try to take too much in or you’ll end up choking yourself and probably biting me. Just do whatever’s good for you. And you might want to turn to the side a bit.’

‘Is it easier that way?’ Ross asked, moving so he was perpendicular to Jim.

‘Makes no difference really, but this way I get to watch you.’ Jim said. ‘I want to see your mouth on me.’ His smile was hazy when Ross looked at him. ‘You ready?’ 

‘Yes.’ Ross could barely keep himself in check. Everything about this was making him so hot it felt like his was burning up from the inside out. He lowered his head, contemplating what he was about to do. He got close enough that he could smell Jim’s body, dry and salty and musky all at once, and then he opened his mouth and took him in. The first thing he noticed was how smooth the skin was on his tongue, the softness taking him by surprise. The second was that Jim was shivering uncontrollably under the hand Ross had put on his stomach to steady himself. He looked to the side and saw that Jim’s head was back, the line of his throat exposed and that his mouth was open as he panted, the noise harsh and desperate.

‘Fuck…’ he groaned. ‘Oh fuck, yes… yes.. yes…’ He looked back up. ‘Go deeper.’ Ross turned back and lowered his head a little more, Jim’s cock filling his mouth as he moved down. He was salivating heavily and then it got to where he was starting to feel a little uncomfortable so he lifted and Jim’s cock slid out of his mouth. Jim arched up and hissed. ‘Don’t stop. Don’t fucking stop.’ He looked down at Ross. ‘Do that again. But this time when you lift up, suck on it.’ Ross went back down, and this time it was easier now he knew what to expect. He took Jim in again, a little further this time and when he lifted his head, he sucked just hard enough to create traction. The effect that had was startling.

‘Fuck!’ Jim was almost shouting now. ‘Shit, that’s so fucking good.’ He was almost thrashing on the pillow. ‘Just like that, Ross. Keep going, baby.’ He moaned as Ross put his head a down and started doing it in earnest, his head rising and falling as Jim’s cock slid in and out of his mouth. He hadn’t expected it to be as good for him as it obviously was for Jim, but he was delighted to find that he was quickly falling in love with it, the tastes and textures and the little broken noises Jim was making. His own cock was rock hard now and Ross wondered if Jim would mind if he touched himself, but then he felt Jim’s hand on his thigh and then, oh dear God, on his cock. It was so unexpected and so good that Ross had to pull off, his own breathing almost stopping. 

‘Come here.’ Jim said, his voice demanding. ‘Bring your arse here now.’

‘What?’ Ross was confused. Jim smiled at him, his eyes on fire. 

‘Kneel over me.’ he said. ‘With your head that way.’ Ross wasn’t sure what Jim wanted but he trusted him enough to know Jim knew what he was doing. He moved so he was astride Jim’s chest and facing his cock. He felt Jim move him into position. 

‘Okay.’ he said. ‘You can keep going now.’ Ross gave him a brief look over his shoulder and then went back down, very aware that his arse was probably in Jim’s face and that was weird as fuck and not what he’d expected and then the world suddenly whited out as Jim put both arms around him and licked right where Ross had not expected him to lick.

‘Oh shit!’ It came out like the words had been punched out of him. ‘Jim, what are you doing?’ Ross could decide if it was the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to him or the greatest. He felt an insane urge to just sit on Jim’s face and let Jim’s tongue drive him insane. 

‘Keep going.’ Jim ordered and then his tongue was pressing in and Ross couldn’t help it. He threw his head back and made sounds he’d never believed he was capable of producing. Then he fell forward and completely disregarded any thoughts of personal safety as he took Jim’s cock in as deep as he could, the overwhelming pleasure of Jim’s mouth on him making him lose all control. He was vaguely aware that he was slobbering horribly, but he didn’t care. He moved up and down, matching Jim’s rhythm and he moaned shamelessly around Jim’s cock as he pushed back into Jim’s mouth. It eventually got too hard to focus and Ross pulled off, barely able to breathe. He felt Jim shoving at him and went where he was being guided. He ended up on his stomach and then Jim was over him, his hands on Ross backside as he felt himself being pulled open and then Jim’s mouth was there again, his tongue working against him. Ross braced himself on his elbows and spread his legs and whined and panted and moaned as Jim did things to him he’d never ever contemplated. He was so hard and he thrust down into the bed involuntarily. He was pretty sure he’d lost the capacity to use words and could only spit out isolated words.

‘Fuck…’ he moaned as Jim dragged his tongue over him in long flat licks. ‘Please...’ he felt Jim let him go and sit up.

‘Turn over.’ he said and Ross rolled onto his back. Jim was kneeling, his cock erect and leaking and the sight of it made Ross wish it was back in his mouth. But then Jim took hold of him and leaned down and Ross almost screamed as Jim took him in his mouth, all the way down so his nose was almost touching Ross’ stomach. 

Ross was helpless. He could do nothing but lie there and feel it come down on him like a tidal wave, his vision blurring and the only sound the pounding of his blood in his ears as Jim lifted and dropped, his mouth a warm, wet heaven that had Ross’ toes curling and his hands fisting the duvet as his orgasm came down on him like a thunderbolt out of a clear blue sky. The last thing he heard was his own voice crying out loud enough to probably wake everyone within a twenty foot radius, but he was so far gone he didn’t care. 

Jim sucked hard, swallowing and taking him through it until Ross was done, every tendon and muscle in his body straining as he shook with aftershock after aftershock. Only then did he pull off and move up. Ross opened his eyes to see Jim next to him and looked down. 

‘You’re still hard.’ he said, his own voice sounding like it was a million miles away in his ears. 

‘I’m fine.’ Jim’s face was shiny with sweat. ‘I think I can probably come just from watching you.’ He started to reach for himself, but Ross caught his hand. 

‘I want to.’ he said. Their eyes met and locked. ‘I want to make you come.’ 

‘Jesus.’ Jim groaned. He reached over his shoulder and grabbed the lube. ‘Give me your hand.’ He took hold of Ross’ wrist and dumped a load of lube in his open palm. ‘Show me how you touch yourself. How you make yourself come.’ He guided Ross’ hand to his cock. ‘Show me, baby boy.’ 

Ross did, using the same rhythm he used on himself in the dead of night, voice muffled by the pillow. Next to him, Jim watched his face, his ocean eyes wide as he arched into Ross’ hand and his mouth open as he panted.

‘Christ Ross, what you fucking do to me.’ he whined. ‘God, I want you so fucking much.’ Ross looked back, their eyes locked as he moved his hand faster and then Jim’s hands were clutching at his shoulders as they moved so he was on his back, Ross leaning over him. The slick sound of his hand was mesmerising and Ross looked down to watch, until he felt Jim’s cock throb in his hand and he came, bowing off the bed with an inarticulate cry, his cum going all over Ross’ hand once again. Jim let his head fall back, eyes closed and chest heaving as he battled to breathe. 

‘Fucking hell.’ he said. ‘You have some serious skills, boy.’ He laughed, and the lightness in it made Ross’ heart hurt it was so good. ‘You keep doing that and we’ll be going nowhere tomorrow.’ He opened his eyes and looked at Ross. ‘I thought you said, you’d never done this before.’

‘I haven’t.’ Ross couldn’t help how smug he was feeling from watching how he’d made Jim fall apart. ‘But now I think I really want to do that again. Like now.’ Jim reached up and pulled him down, kissing him. 

‘Brat.’ he said. ‘You might have to give me a few minutes.’ He reached for the towel and handed it to Ross. Ross took it and cleaned off his hand. He was about to ask what they could do next when there was a loud hammering on the window and then Flint’s unmistakeable accent came through loud enough for them to hear the irritation in his voice.

‘For Christ’s sake!’ he yelled. ‘What the fuck are you doing to him in there? You sound like a bunch of fucking wild animals! Some of us are trying to get some rest and between you horny bastards and the girls howling like wolves it's a wonder anyone can fucking sleep at all! SHUT THE FUCK UP!’ 

‘Shit.’ Jim said and his dimples flickered madly. ‘He sounds really pissed off.’ He looked at Ross and pushed his sweaty hair out of his eyes. ‘This is your fault I hope you know.’

‘Fuck off.’ Ross promptly retorted. ‘You were making most of the noise.’ They looked at each other and then broke down, both giggling into each other’s shoulders until their sides hurt. 

‘Right, bedtime for you.’ Jim said, pushing Ross off him. ‘I’m already another hour down on my beauty sleep.’ 

‘But we haven’t even fucked yet.’ Ross protested. His body felt like it had been awoken by a bucket of ice water in the face and it did not want to go back to sleep. Jim chuckled and kissed him. 

‘Tomorrow is another day, baby boy.’ he said. ‘Now go the fuck to sleep.’ Ross grumbled as Jim cleaned himself up and then dragged the duvet down so they could get under it. He was about to protest that he wasn’t in the slightest bit tired but then the strangest thing happened and he was out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

Next to him, Jim smiled and reached up to turn off the lights. He lay down and pulled Ross close, inhaling the smell of his skin before he closed his eyes and went to sleep.


	7. Gwithian Beach

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jim and Anne teach Ross and Demelza how to surf.

Ross woke to the sound of people cat calling outside. It was light and he opened his eyes and realised that Jim was still behind him, his bare skin warm and one arm wrapped protectively around Ross’ waist. He was breathing steadily into the back of Ross’ neck and it tickled ever so slightly.

Ross smiled crazily into the pillow as his still sleepy brain thought back to the previous night’s events. It had taken a turn he would never have dreamed of, but he couldn’t have been happier. He squirmed gleefully and stifled a giggle. There was a shift behind him and he stopped moving.

‘Ross.’ Jim’s voice was thick with sleep. ‘Stop fucking wriggling. You’re giving me a hard –on.’

‘Sorry.’ he said, half turning to try and look over his shoulder. He could now feel it though, digging into his lower back, and it made him blush. ‘I didn’t mean to.’

‘It’s okay.’ Jim said and then Ross found himself being pulled even closer. ‘You smell so good, it probably would have happened anyway.’

‘I do?’ Ross was dumbfounded that anyone would find his smell pleasant. It wasn’t something he was used to hearing, being the teenage boy that he was.

‘So fucking good.’ Jim was now sticking his nose right into the back of Ross’ neck and suddenly there wasn’t one hard-on, but two to deal with. Especially when the nosing turned to kissing. Jim’s mouth was warm and wet and he moved onto one elbow and licked the side of Ross’ neck and suddenly everything seemed very far away. Ross melted back into him, and arched involuntarily, the stretch in his muscles delicious. 

‘I should probably get going.’ he said, trying to sound like he was motivated to actually get up and not secretly hoping that he could spend the whole day naked in Jim’s bed with the prospect of a re-run of the previous night on the cards. Or possibly more.

‘No, I don’t think so.’ Jim was sounding a little breathless. ‘I think you should stay right here.’ He turned Ross around and Ross found himself staring into deep blue-green eyes. His breathing caught and then Jim pulled him flush against him and their cocks connected and Ross nearly went cross-eyed from how good it felt.

‘Oh fuck.’ he said and Jim smiled lazily. He got hold of Ross and rolled them both so he was underneath, his hands on Ross’ backside as he leaned up and kissed him. Ross was at a loss as to what to do, but eventually instinct overrode everything else and he ended up simultaneously enthusiastically dry humping Jim’s thigh and slobbering all over him like a big puppy. 

‘Jesus.’ Jim gasped as he came up for air. ‘Hang on.’ He pushed at Ross and got him to sit up. ‘I’m going to show you something.’ 

‘What?’ Ross was out of breath and horribly hard. He looked down and noticed that Jim was in exactly the same state. 

‘Sit on top of me. Across my legs.’ Jim said and Ross frowned, then shuffled back so he was straddling Jim’s thighs. Jim was feeling around in the crumpled blanket and then came up with the bottle of lube. He emptied a generous amount into his hand and Ross got horribly excited at the prospect of getting jerked off. He sat and watched intently as Jim reached for him and then moaned shamelessly as Jim slicked him up. It felt so amazing, far better than anything he’ ever done to himself. 

‘Fuck.’ he said looking down at where Jim was making sure that he was completely wet, but then Jim took his hand away and Ross looked at him in confusion. He watched as Jim emptied more lube into his hand and did himself and Ross realised what he was doing. He’d heard about guys jerking off together and, while he was a little disappointed that Jim wasn’t going to be doing it he wasn’t averse to them doing it together. He started to reach for himself, when Jim grabbed his wrist with his clean hand.

‘No.’ he said. ‘Watch.’ He surprised the crap out of Ross by wrapping his hand around both of them. That was not what Ross had expected. But he had to admit that with the added lubrication, the feeling was intense and very very nice indeed. Then Jim started moving his hand and Ross nearly went through the roof. 

‘Oh my God.’ he said, his voice pitching high as Jim twisted his hand when he got to the top. 

‘Want me to show you something better?’ Jim was smiling like a Cheshire Cat. His pupils were wide. ‘Give me your hand.’ Ross held his right one out and Jim let go of them long enough to take it. He put Ross’ hand around them and then covered it with his own, fingers interlinking, and then moving them up and down as he guided Ross’ hand with his own. He watched Ross’ face, smiling when Ross’ mouth dropped open and he started panting hard. 

‘Oh…’ It was all he could get out. Jim smiled and moved his hand slower. The change of pace took Ross by surprise, but the next time their hands came up, Jim swiped his thumb across the heads and Ross made a squeaky noise as the sensation made him jerk. ‘Do that again, please.’ He was now completely out of breath and his whole body felt like it was overheating. Jim laughed and the next time he did it, he dragged it out and Ross keened and then it was there, like fire shooting through him and he came hard all over their joined hands. 

‘Fuck...’ Jim moaned and then he bowed up under Ross, coming in turn and making even more of a mess of their hands. ‘Holy shit that was good.’ His smile was bright. ‘For a virgin, you’re picking it up really quickly.’ His voice was teasing and Ross dropped his head, his cheeks pinking up. Jim laughed and tilted his chin up with his clean hand. ‘That’s a good thing by the way. Not a criticism.’ He managed to sit up and leaned in to kiss Ross on the mouth. Ross kissed him back, his brain emptying of everything other than the taste of Jim’s mouth. 

A loud rap at the window interrupted them and they pulled away from each other. 

‘Jim.’ It was Anne’s voice. ‘Get the fuck up. I want to teach Dem how to surf. She’s going back to grab her things and have a shower and then she’ll be back.’ Jim huffed and flopped back down. 

‘Okay.’ he called back. ‘Give us a few minutes.’

‘Is that all it’s going to take?’ Anne’s voice was mischievous. ‘You’re losing your touch, Hawkins.’ There were fits of childish giggling. Jim looked at Ross. Ross shrugged.

‘Dem is a brat.’ he replied. 

‘Great.’ Jim twisted and unseated him and Ross toppled over onto the bed. He looked around and found the towel from the night before. He cleaned off his hand and then gave it to Ross to do the same. ‘Now, there’s two of them.’

They struggled into their clothes and then Jim opened the door. Ross got out and was greeted by four pairs of eyes, three human and one canine. John, Flint and Anne were all seated around the fire which was burning again, a kettle sitting on the grate they had placed over the flames. Jim got out after him and gave the onlookers a glare. 

‘Not a fucking word.’ he said. John, Flint and Anne exchanged looks and then made zipping motions across their mouths. 

‘Not a word.’ they chorused and burst out laughing as Jim escorted Ross back to his camp site. As they go there, Ross noticed that all the others were also having breakfast, although in their case it seemed to consist of cereal bars and leftover Doritos. Demelza had obviously gone to shower and when they got to the tents, the looks they got this side were nothing short of shocked (Elizabeth, George and Francis) and extremely amused (Verity and Andrew).

‘So, I see you found somewhere to sleep.’ Verity said. She was the only one eating an apple and she took a sizeable bite out of it and grinned at him. Her tone was mocking, but Ross could hear it wasn’t directed at him. This was confirmed by the dirty look she threw her brother and Elizabeth. 

‘Yes.’ Jim said. ‘He did.’ This was also directed at them and then he stepped up to Ross, took his face in his hands and kissed him full on the mouth in front of everyone. It happened so quickly that Ross didn’t even had time to react and then Jim was stepping back. 

‘Half an hour?’ he said. ‘Then we can go.’ 

‘Where are you going?’ Francis asked. He and George looked like a pair of fly-catchers with their open mouths. 

‘I’m going surfing.’ Ross said, looking at Jim with a smile.

**********

Jim was waiting for Ross at the ablutions block when he’d finally wandered over, clean clothes and washbag in hand and a towel over his shoulder, after spending ten minutes getting his things and deflecting questions, and they had gone in together. Ross had always been body conscious but he had no choice when Jim gave him an evil smile and hauled him into the shower cubicle with him. That led to a lot of giggling and then soft panted breaths as they jerked each other off under the hot water, then washed each other clean, barely coming up for air as they snogged almost constantly. 

They got dressed and walked back to the camp site and Jim reached out and took Ross’ hand, startling him a little. Then he realised how good it felt and didn’t resist when Jim interlinked their fingers. Anne and Demelza were sitting on the floor of the open van door waiting for them. Flint and John were gone and so was Billy. 

‘They’ve gone to the shop and then they said they’re going to get some sleep because they were kept awake by the four of us last night.’ Anne said with a broad smile. 

‘Payback.’ Jim laughed. ‘How many times have you and I had to listen to them lift the roof.’ 

‘You’ve set the cat amongst the pigeons.’ Demelza’s blue eyes were sparkling. ‘They are all freaking out about the fact that you may be gay.’ 

‘So what did you say?’ Ross asked. He couldn’t decide whether he was mortified or really didn’t give a fuck any more. 

‘That it was fine because you’re clearly bi.’ Demelza said. 

They stopped off at the Newquay surf shop first to hire wetsuits and boards for the two learners and then set off with their ultimate destination being Gwithian beach, which had a gentle swell and break that was good for learning. Ross was in the passenger seat next to Jim, his bare feet on the dash board and his arm out the window. Jim had the Beach Boys on and he and Anne were singing along with it. She and Demelza were cuddled up on Jim’s bed in the back and Ross had looked over several times to see them snogging happily. 

The drive was about an hour and by the time they got there, Ross was feeling happy and relaxed. Jim found a space and parked up and they all fell out of the van and went to look at the beach. Unlike Newquay it wasn’t nearly as crowded. Anne and Jim surveyed the water with critical eyes. 

‘Baby swells.’ Anne said. ‘Should be good.’ She gave Demelza a grin. ‘You ready, pretty girl?’

‘Hell yeah.’ Demelza was bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement. She helped Anne get her board down from the rack on the top. She was already wearing her wetsuit, as was Anne. They had gotten changed in the back with a maximum of giggling while Jim was still driving. 

‘Right.’ Anne said. ‘Let’s get our arses down there.’ They jogged off down to the sand. Jim leaned back against the van and yawned. 

‘So.’ he said. ‘You really want to try it?’ 

‘It looks difficult.’ Ross said, deciding that he had nothing to lose by being completely honest. ‘But I think so.’ 

‘If you can pull off a 360, you can surf.’ Jim said. ‘It’s all about reflexes and coordination.’ His smile grew wicked. ‘And you certainly demonstrated that this morning.’ Ross couldn’t help smiling.

‘Hopefully that won’t be all I demonstrate.’ He replied and then blushed at his own daring. Jim’s blond eyebrows went skyward. 

‘Okay.’ he said, dimples flickering. ‘That we are definitely going to talk about later. But for now let’s focus on getting you in the water.’ They got back in the van to get changed. Afterwards Jim showed Ross how to wax the board and then they went down onto the sand to where the girls were already busy.

A half an hour later, Anne and Jim had him and Demelza on their boards on the beach. They had taught them the basics of paddling, popping up and standing correctly and were now drilling them over and over until they were satisfied that they had it right. Ross was horribly distracted by Jim in his wetsuit though, and found that his long arms and legs had a tendency to get tangled up when he tried to get up on Jim’s board. 

Anne was on her haunches, watching Demelza pop up effortlessly. She gave her an encouraging smile.

‘You’re doing really well.’ She said. ‘Much better than Ross is.’ This was said in a teasing tone.

‘Oi.’ Jim retorted. ‘Ross is doing bloody well considering it’s his first time. Not everyone can be a protégé.’ He winked at Ross as he said this. Ross grinned at him.

‘Of course if you’re going to make excuses.’ Demelza said and gave Ross a challenging smile. It never failed to get his back up and it didn’t now. He opened his mouth, about to say something, but Jim beat him to it.

‘We could always make things interesting.’ he said. The corner of Anne’s mouth quirked. 

‘How interesting?’ she asked. 

‘Losers make dinner.’ Jim said. He looked at Ross for confirmation.

‘Cool with me.’ Ross said. ‘Although I should probably say right now that I can’t cook.’

‘Not a problem. You can be the sous chef.’ Anne said. ‘You’re on, Hawkins. First one to get their student to ride a full wave wins.’ She and Demelza exchanged looks and then they were up and headed for the water. Ross sighed as he looked at Jim. 

‘You know we’re going to lose, right?’ he said and Jim smiled. 

‘No, we’re not.’ he replied. ‘You’re actually doing fine. And I am a very good teacher.’ He stood up and held out his hand to haul Ross to his feet. Ross took it and their eyes locked. ‘And maybe later, I can teach you some other things.’ The unspoken promise in those words made Ross’ breathing catch. 

‘Yeah?’ he said and Jim reached up, hand on Ross’ face and his thumb smoothing along Ross’ lower lip. It was such an intimate touch and Ross’ eyes went wide. He’d never been touched in that way before. 

‘I can teach you anything you want.’ Jim’s voice pitched low. ‘Just ask me.’ That brought a whole slew of filthy ideas crashing into Ross’ head. Like any boy his age, he had a very vivid imagination when it came to anything classed as a sexual activity, but the thought that in a few hours he would be allowed to have free access to someone who would help them become a reality was almost a little too much. 

‘Anything I want?’ he repeated stupidly. ‘Can we really?’

‘You said you wanted to have sex with me, right?’ Jim said. Ross couldn’t help noticing how he was a little bit flushed, a lovely wash of colour under the tan and light freckles. ‘Well, that doesn’t mean just sticking it in and hoping for the best. It doesn’t even mean that you’re going to be the one on the receiving end, if you don’t want to be.’ That was something that Ross had only thought about in the very abstract sense. He stared at Jim as the words sank in and he realised that Jim was offering to let him be on top. 

‘Okay.’ he said, his own face now considerably hotter than it had been a minute ago. ‘But I think I want to be.’ He forced himself to say what came next and the words tumbled out in a joined together mess. ‘I mean I want to be the one on the bottom.’ Jim’s blue-green eyes sparkled at him and he stepped in and gave Ross a kiss. 

‘I think we need to get in the water now or the girls are going to need to find their own ride back to the camp site.’ he said and then kneeled down and fastened the leash around Ross’ right ankle. Ross picked up the board like Jim had shown him and carried it under his arm down to the water.

The water was warm and they waded until it was waist deep, their boards floating between them with their hands on them to keep them in place. Ross saw that Anne and Demelza were a little way down from them. A sudden competitiveness woke up inside him and he was determined to show Jim what he could do. 

‘This is good.’ Jim said. ‘The swells are small but they’ll carry you in. Just remember to do what I said. You don’t stand up until you’re used to what they feel like.’ There was a loud squeal and they turned and saw that Demelza had toppled off. ‘See, that’s what happens when you try to go too fast. You need to find your balance first. So the next wave, I want you to get on and just ride it in. Don’t do anything, just get the feel of it. I’m going to be right next to you.’ Ross nodded and turned to look over his shoulder. The waves coming were small and foamy, and he felt the oncoming water start to rush around his body. Jim looked at him.

‘You ready?’ he asked and Ross got onto his board.

‘Ready.’ he confirmed. Jim got onto his with considerably more grace than Ross had. They were facing towards the beach and then the wave hit and Ross felt it lift him up and towards the sand. He held on, toes pointed down as Jim had shown him and laughed at the amazing sensation of being carried by the wave. It eventually fizzled out and he slid of his boar, his wet hair hanging in his eyes and a grin plastered all over his face.

‘That was insane.’ he said and Jim laughed.

‘Better than riding?’ he asked. 

‘No.’ Ross said. ‘Different. But really fucking cool.’

‘Wait till you stand up.’ Jim said. 

He made Ross practice again and again, simply lying on the board until Ross could naturally adjust himself to the movement of the water. He was now adept at getting on and off the board. 

‘Okay.’ Jim said. ‘Now we can try kneeling.’

‘They’re already standing.’ Ross said, looking over at the girls.

‘Yeah, and Dem hasn’t been able to ride a single full wave to the shore yet.’ Jim said. ‘Anne’s too fucking impatient.’ Ross took him in, his blond hair darkened by water and his golden eyelashes sticking together, and the heat that had been sitting in his chest since he’d woken up that morning bloomed and threatened to flood his whole body. Jim met his eyes and then they were chest to chest in the water, kissing furiously. 

‘Oi!’ Anne’s voice floated over the water to them. ‘Less snogging, more surfing.’ Jim and Ross ignored her, still tangled up in each other until they were hit by wave and fell over into the surf. They resurfaced, laughing and spluttering. 

‘You haven’t won yet.’ Jim laughed. ‘Dem hasn’t been able to stand up for a whole wave yet.’

‘Give us five minutes.’ Anne laughed. Dem joined her and they started heading into deeper water. Jim shook his head.

‘Come on, baby boy.’ he said. ‘Again. Get onto your knees and just hold the front of the board steady.’

That next step was actually easier for Ross to manage. He managed about ten runs on his knees, getting more and more confident. He was really enjoying himself, the feeling getting better and better until it happened more by accident than anything else. 

The next wave he caught was a little bigger than the previous ones, and Ross felt the board rock underneath him. To counteract the movement, he put out both hands and instead of getting to his knees, he found himself getting his feet under him and then he was standing, hands outstretched to balance himself. 

The feeling was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. Ross had fallen in love with riding the very first time his bike had left the ground and he’d landed his first jump. But this was every bit as incredible, the way the board picked up speed under his feet as he raced towards the beach. He could hear Jim laughing in delight behind him and then the board slowed. He waited until it stopped and then neatly hopped off into the water. 

‘Fuck, yeah!’ Jim’s voice was jubilant as he cruised in alongside him. He held up his hand they high fived, then turned around to wave at the girls. 

‘Looks like lunch is on you!’ Jim yelled. 

***********

There was a little café on the beach and they went up after another hour or so and had cheese and tomato toasties and cola, then went back down onto the sand to sit in the sun while they finished off with ice creams. The wind had died down a bit and the sea was rougher, the waves losing their definition.

‘It’s fucking mushy out there now.’ Jim said, giving the wooden stick from his Magnum a long lick that made Ross stare as his mind worked overtime. An afternoon of being in close proximity with Jim in the water had made him almost vibrate with repressed sexual tension. 

‘We can go to Fistral.’ Anne said. ‘It’ll be good now with the offshore current picking up. I’m sure these two are knackered after that.’ Ross had to admit she was right. After he’d managed to stand up almost repeatedly without falling off, Jim had moved them into deeper water as well, teaching Ross how to paddle efficiently and duck dive under the bigger waves. Now Ross’ shoulders and arms ached and he understood why Jim was so defined in his upper body. Next to Anne, Demelza was also feeling the exertion and had her hand on Anne’s shoulder. 

‘Is that okay?’ Jim asked him. ‘Anne and I can go surf for a few of hours and then we can head back?’

‘That sounds good.’ Demelza stretched her arms above her head. ‘I am going to crash and burn tonight.’ 

‘I say we stop and get KFC on the way back.’ Anne said. ‘I have a powerful need for hot wings.’ 

‘Good idea.’ Jim said. He reached over and wiped a smudge of chocolate from the corner of Ross’ mouth. ‘So what about you, baby boy? You going to crash and burn later?’

‘No.’ Ross replied. ‘I plan on staying awake.’ Jim laughed and put his arm around him, and Ross leaned into it.

‘Good.’ he murmured in Ross’ ear. ‘I have plans.’ The suggestive warmth in his voice made Ross shiver and he looked at him. Anne huffed a laugh and nudged Demelza.

‘Maybe we should stop at Boots and pick up some ear plugs as well.’ she snickered. Jim gave her a shove, laughing while Ross went red as a beetroot.

‘Pot, kettle, black.’ he said.


	8. All The Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The time has come...

They were at Fistral beach, and Ross and Demelza were sitting on the sand and watching Jim and Anne surf out in the waves. These were different to the ones at Gwithian, long and curling. Jim had tolf Ross that it was called a break and that meant the waves travelled along the contours of the coastline. His eyes were fixed on Jim, who was about a hundred and fifty yards out. He was sitting straddling his board and facing towards the sun, which was now low in the sky. Ross sighed happily and Demelza looked at him. She was grinning.

‘You like him so fucking much.’ she said, her voice filled with smug certainty. Ross would have normally denied everything, but in this case it was true so he just smiled and went with it.

‘I guess I do.’ he replied, not even looking at her. Jim had caught a wave and Ross watched him turn his board and paddle, stopping to pop up effortlessly, his hands out to balance as he rode along the bottom of the tube, his speed picking up until he angled the board up sharply, moving from trough to crest in a series of movements until the wave died out and Jim dropped back down again. 

‘So, you’re really going to do it?’ Demelza asked and Ross kept watching the figure out on the waves, feeling the butterflies in his stomach swirl and take flight all over again as the sun hit Jim’s hair and made it shine. 

‘Yes, I am.’ he replied, his voice dreamy. ‘With him.’ He pulled his knees to his chest and hugged them. ‘He said he’ll teach me anything I want.’

‘Wow. Okay.’ Demelza said. ‘That’s like the best offer you could ever get.’ Her smile was wicked. ‘And judging by the noises you were making last night, he knows what he’s doing. Just how far did you two get?’ Ross didn’t answer and she frowned. ‘Handjobs?’ Ross couldn’t help it. His smile broadened and Demelza’s mouth fell open. ‘No.’

‘Yes.’ he replied. 

‘What? Like you did him or he did you?’ she hissed as a family walked past behind them. 

‘Both.’ Ross said. ‘It was fucking amazing.’ He looked at her. ‘Can I ask you something?’

‘Sure.’ Demelza laughed. 

‘Have you ever had someone put their mouth like, down there.’ Ross said and her eyes widened and then she burst out laughing.

‘Jesus Christ.’ She giggled. ‘He fucking rimmed you as well? Holy shit.’

‘Is that what it’s called?’ Ross looked thoughtful. Demelza hit him in the arm.

‘Yes, you knob-end. That’s what it’s called.’ She shook her head at him. ‘Sounds like you two have things pretty much covered.’

‘I told him he can fuck me.’ Ross blurted out and then went scarlet. Now, Demelza’s mouth actually did fall open and didn’t close again. Ross looked at her expectantly and eventually she regained enough of her composure to speak.

‘Right.’ she said. ‘Firstly, that is probably the last thing I expected to hear come out of your mouth. And secondly, do you have any idea of the mechanics?’

‘No.’ Ross admitted. ‘But how hard can it be?’ 

‘Mate.’ Demelza said. ‘Okay I need to tell you some stuff.’ She stood up and dusted the sand off her shorts. ‘Let’s walk down the beach.’ Ross got up and did the same, then followed her.

They were coming back to the van when Jim came out the water, Anne behind him. It was cooling rapidly, and they walked up the beach together and when they got to the car park Jim saw Ross and Demelza were at the van, sitting on the concrete barrier and sharing a packet of crisps. When they got to them, the two looked up and Jim got the distinct feeling that he had been the subject of the conversation if the grins he was getting were any indication. They made no move to get up as he and Anne walked past and Jim heard them giggling behind them as he and Anne got to the van.

He and Anne propped their boards against the van and Jim opened the door and grabbed a towel for him and Anne. He dried his face off and then unzipped his wetsuit enough to peel it off the top half of his body. He dried himself down with brisk strokes and looked at where Ross and Demelza were now siting with their heads together and whispering to each other.

‘Why do I get the feeling we picked up a couple of serious troublemakers?’ he said and Anne looked at him in confusion and then back over her shoulder at the pair. 

‘Now, you realise that?’ she laughed. ‘Let me tell you, that little girl is a serious livewire. And she’s a lot less innocent that that face would tell you.’ She gave Jim a knowing smile. ‘I think I may have seriously underestimated her.’ She had stripped off her wetsuit and was now in her bikini, towelling her green hair. ‘But let me tell you, I am so going to get her tonight. Last night she actually made me meow, the little minx.’ The confession was so unexpected that Jim started laughing. 

‘Bloody hell.’ he said when he’d managed to stop. ‘She made you meow?’

‘Like a fucking horny cat.’ Anne said. ‘That girl has the wickedest tongue I have ever encountered. I would like to find who taught her how to use it and give them a fucking medal.’ Jim laughed at that and then wriggled out of his wetsuit, not missing the look that was thrown his way as he did. In the time honoured tradition f all surfers he wrapped his towel around his waist, stripped off the undershorts he was wearing and then sauntered over to where Ross’ attention was now definitely focused on him. He tousled Ross’ hair, the curls thick and defined from being in the salt water. The look Ross gave him was enough to make Demelza roll her eyes and get up. 

‘Fuck’s sake.’ she muttered. ‘I hope you know you’ve created a monster.’ This was directed at him and Jim gave her an unrepentant smile.

‘Fucking hope so.’ he said, his eyes back on Ross, who smiled at him. Jim couldn’t resist reaching out and resting his fingertips on the full mouth, and Ross’ eyes widened a little. Then his expression changed and he caught the tip of Jim’s forefinger between his teeth and sucked on it. Jim stared at him, hardly able to reconcile the shy boy that had climbed into his van the night before and the one now giving him a hard-on just by virtue of having his finger in his mouth, even if that mouth was gorgeous as fuck.

Jim extricated himself and headed back to the van as quickly as he could without embarrassing himself completely. Ross’ laughter rang in his ears. 

‘That’ll teach you to play chicken.’ he called after Jim and Anne and Demelza gave Jim a look as he barrelled into the van.

‘Tell that cocky little shit that he’s a dead man later.’ Jim said to Demelza and slammed the door shut to get changed in peace. She exchanged looks with Anne and they turned to see Ross sitting with a very smug look on his face.

‘A monster, I tell you.’ Demelza said, shaking her pink curls.

They finally got in the car and drove back to the camp site. Ross was sitting back in the passenger seat but this time he wasn’t paying attention to what was outside the window. Instead he was sitting facing Jim and looking at him intently. Jim felt like the tables had been turned somehow and he wasn’t sure why.

‘So what exactly have you and her been talking about?’ he eventually asked and Ross gave him a look of mock innocence.

‘We haven’t been talking about anything.’ he said. ‘Have we Dem?’ he called this into the back but fortunately the girls were too busy snogging to pay them any attention.

‘Like fuck you haven’t.’ Jim replied. ‘We leave you alone for an hour and suddenly you’re Casanova?’

‘Dem just explained a few things.’ Ross said. ‘And it just so happens that I think those things sound very interesting and I am looking forward to trying them.’ He grinned. ‘You said I could ask you to teach me anything I wanted.’

‘Within the physical possibilities available to us in this car.’ Jim said. He gave Ross a brief look. ‘Guess we’re not going anywhere tonight.’

‘Fine by me.’ Ross replied and settled into the seat, yawning. ‘I’m shattered after that.’ He caught Jim’s mile. ‘Not that shattered though.’

‘So long as we get food.’ Anne shouted from the back and Jim cursed her bat-like hearing. ‘Then you two can do what the fuck you want.’ They stopped at the KFC long enough for Anne and Demelza to hop out and Jim took the opportunity to put his serious face on.

‘Right we need some ground rules before both of us get completely carried away.’ He said and Ross frowned. 

‘Like what?’ he asked. 

‘Well, everything from last night still stands.’ Jim replied. ‘Are you sure you want to do this tonight?’

‘Absolutely.’ Ross said, sounding a little put out. ‘Don’t you?’ 

‘Yes, of course I do.’ Jim said. ‘But it doesn’t hurt to triple check. And you can change your mind at any time.’ He started to speak again but then Ross unclipped his seatbelt and practically jumped on him, kissing him hard. Jim barely had time to think before Ross’ tongue was in his mouth and all the blood rushed away from the sensible brain and in the not-so-sensible other direction. He finally managed to get some air and looked at Ross who was panting softly and looking absolutely gorgeous with his flushed cheeks and starry eyes. Then the heat hit Jim in the stomach like a stray board and he grabbed Ross by the back of the neck and hauled him in again, and they kissed until they were both breathless.

‘As if.’ Ross snorted when Jim finally let him go. ‘I want to start now.’

‘Patience, young Paduwan.’ Jim said, unable to contain his smile. ‘We need to get rid of the others first.’

‘Can’t we just drop them off somewhere?’ Ross said, aware that sounded a little petulant but not really giving a fuck. ‘They have legs. They can walk back.’

‘Do you want food, or not?’ Jim asked. Ross sighed and huffed back to his seat.

‘S’pose.’ he said, arms folded. They watched the girls walk back, laden with bags. They got in and the smell obviously hit Ross in the stomach. Jim gave him a grin at the loud growling noise that came from that general vicinity. Ross glared at him. ‘What? I’m a growing boy.’

They sat and ate in the car and then stopped alongside the bin long enough for Ross to hang out the window and slam dunk the rubbish inside it. Jim found himself staring at Ross’ backside. He wore such damnably tight jeans it was a wonder he could even move and it was doing absolutely nothing for Jim’s self-control. 

‘Jesus, will you stop drooling.’ Anne said and Jim turned back to glare at her. Ross came back inside the window and sat back. Then he realised that there was a battle of stares going on between the front seat and the back seat.

‘What?’ he asked, doe eyes wide.

‘Nothing.’ Jim said, putting the van in gear and pulling off.

When they got back it was to find John and Flint looking slightly more turned out than usual. Jim parked and turned off the van and hung out the window as John came over to him.

‘So there’s a beach party down at Newquay.’ he said. ‘We’re going to head over there with Verity and Andrew. You have half an hour to get yourselves spruced up.’ 

‘Fuck no.’ Anne said from the back seat. ‘We’re knackered. The only thing I want is a shower and my sleeping bag.’ 

‘No can do, Annie.’ Flint stuck his head in the window as well. ‘We are officially chaperoning the babies.’

‘We’re not babies.’ Demelza protested.

‘You’re all underage, and the cops like to bust these parties so at least this way you’ll have some legitimate people of age.’ Flint laughed. ‘Because quite frankly, Andrew may be eighteen but he looks fifteen.’

‘Actually that’s true, Dem.’ Ross said over the chair. 

‘Well, if we have to go, then so do you.’ Dem said archly and Ross looked at Jim apologetically as he realised what he’d just done.

‘Fine.’ Jim sighed. ‘Let’s get this over with.’

After getting dressed they were all walking down the beach into Newquay. Ross was feeling grumpy as fuck at the prospect of not being able to get Jim alone for at least an hour or so. He was stomping along at the rear, and even the fact that he was holding Jim’s hand wasn’t enough to cheer him up. 

Some way up ahead Anne and Demelza were walking hand in hand as well, chatting with Andrew and Verity. Flint, John and Billy were a good few yards ahead of them. Flint had a ball that he was throwing for the shepherd and Billie was bounding along to chase it. It was getting dark now, the light barely reflecting off the water and Ross could just see the outlines of the group in front of him. 

He was about to comment about how he wasn’t going to have any fun when there was a tug on him hand. He stopped and looked at Jim, just able to see the dimples in Jim’s cheeks as he grinned and then looked back into the darkness. Jim put a finger to his lips and Ross smiled back as he realised what was up. They waited until the group was a little further away and then turned back, walking along quickly and quietly as they retreated back towards the camp site. 

Demelza got a funny feeling a few minutes later and turned to look behind her. She inhaled sharply as she realised that Jim and Ross were nowhere to be seen, then tugged on Anne’s hand. Anne gave her a quizzical look and then did the same.  
‘What?’ Verity asked as she and Andrew stopped to look at them.

‘I think we have a couple of deserters.’ Anne said, exchanging smiles with Demelza.

**********

‘Slow down!’ Jim was laughing so hard he could barely breathe. Ross slowed just enough to bound around him like an excitable puppy. ‘Your legs are longer than mine.’

‘Your fault for being so short.’ Ross replied. For his impertinence he was tackled into the sand, the air knocked out of him. Jim was short but he was also sturdily built. He lay and gasped with laughter as Jim straddled him and pinned his wrists into the sand.

‘Cheeky bugger.’ he said. ‘You’re going to pay for that.’ He leaned down just far enough to give Ross the lightest of kisses. Ross lay back in the sand and smiled blissfully at him.

‘Do you think they’ve realised we’ve bailed yet.’ he asked, wriggling a little to get more of that delicious friction. 

‘Probably.’ Jim said, he let go of Ross’ wrists and Ross sat up and shook the sand out of his hair. He was now nose to nose with Jim and the lights from the town behind him cast beautiful shadows on Jim’s face. Jim looked at him, his eyes made silver grey by the dim light, then leaned in again. This time Ross moved forward to meet him, kissing back and letting Jim push his mouth open with his tongue. This time it was slow and deep and Jim tangled his fingers in the air at the back of his head, controlling the kiss and making Ross’ pulse speed up. He couldn’t help the way his body responded and he pushed up against Jim, whining a little when Jim pulled his head back away from him. 

‘In the van.’ he said and Ross was pleased to hear that he sounded slightly unhinged. ‘We are not fucking out here, as much as I want you right now.’ 

‘You do?’ Ross asked and Jim reached for his hand and then placed it on the front of his jeans. Ross felt the hardness under his palm and it suddenly became vital that they got to the van as quickly as possible. Jim saw his face change and got off of him, holding out a hand. Ross took it and they walked back as quickly as was decent to the camp site. Ross could see the lights only a hundred yards or so away and when they finally reached the grass, he and Jim headed straight for the van. It too Jim a moment to dig his keys out and unlock the door, before opening it and practically shoving Ross in ahead of him, stopping only to switch on the fairy lights.

They landed on the bed in a tangle of limbs and kisses, barely managing to get the door closed. Eventually Jim had to climb off and slam it shut, then turned back and jumped right back in, stripping his shirt off as he went. Ross watched him as best he could in the dark, reaching for him as Jim climbed on the bed and pulling him on top of him. Jim landed with a muffled ‘oof’ that was quickly swallowed by Ross’ mouth. 

This was completely different to the night before. Ross’ body had had an entire twenty-four hours to process the fact that all and any sexual contact with Jim was a fantastic idea and he was almost desperate in his need to get as much physical contact with him as possible. He ran his hands down Jim’s back, feeling the muscles flex under them and then decided to try something. He made his fingers into claws and drew his nails down. The effect was both immediate and extremely gratifying. Jim pulled back from him, gasping loudly and thrusting down against him really hard. 

‘Fuck.’ he moaned and Ross nearly screamed in delight at how he sounded, his voice low and rough. ‘You are asking for trouble doing that.’ That was extremely encouraging so Ross did the only sensible thing. He did it again, but slower this time and the noise that came out of Jim’s mouth was nothing short of filthy. Ross looked up at him, smiling broadly.

‘I like that.’ he said. Jim snorted and booped him on the nose.

‘Brat.’ he said and moved so he was off Ross and lying on his side. ‘Let’s see how you like this.’ Ross was about to give s snarky response, but then Jim popped the button on his jeans and shoved his hand down the front and Ross went from still being able to think enough to insult him to not being able to think at all as Jim’s hand wrapped itself around his cock. He arched up into Jim’s hand, both hands now at the back of Jim’s neck and whined. Jim chuckled softly and nuzzled the side of his neck, squeezing just hard enough that Ross wanted to go through the roof. He had decided that he would never be able to get enough of Jim’s hand on him, especially when it started moving, making him moan involuntarily.

‘Good boy.’ Jim breathed into his neck, his tongue flicking out and running up to Ross’ ear, where he caught Ross’ earlobe between his teeth in a gentle grip and licked it. ‘Let me hear you.’ He sucked on Ross’ ear and Ross could do nothing but lie there and make soft keening noises as the dual sensations pretty much drive him crazy. He let go of Jim enough to unzip his jeans and shove them down so Jim had better access. Jim pulled away and laughed, then let go before sliding his fingers under the waistband of Ross’ briefs, letting them drift teasingly lower and lower until he could touch him. It was almost too much and Ross put his hands over his head and grabbed onto the pillow, squeezing his eyes shut as Jim ran his thumb over the head of his cock, already horribly sensitive from how worked up he was. He pushed at Ross’ t-shirt and dipped his head, sucking on his left nipple. Ross wasn’t expecting that to really feel like much, but it streaked white hot right through him. He started to breathe rapidly and Jim pulled back enough to lick at it, his tongue making slow circles that made Ross’ toes curl. Ross watched him and Jim lifted his eyes, their gazes locking. He smiled and then kissed across Ross’ chest to do the same to the other one, his other hand pumping steadily. Ross felt the feeling curdling in his stomach and cock, taking him up.

‘Fuck.’ he breathed. ‘Jim…can we…’

‘What baby boy?’ Jim’s voice was muffled as he kissed along Ross’ collar bone where it was sticking out of his shirt. ‘Tell me what you want.’

‘You.’ Ross said and Jim looked up. ‘Inside…’ he looked a little surprised and then he smiled.

‘Slow down.’ he replied, returning the smile. ‘We have the whole night.’

‘I know, it’s just…’ Ross took a deep breath. ‘I’m kind of worried about it hurting and if we get it out the way then I don’t have to worry anymore.’

‘It’s going to hurt a little bit regardless.’ Jim said. ‘But it’s not going to hurt for very long if you’re ready for it. And we go super super slow.’ He leaned down and kissed Ross then looked at him, his face serious. ‘Do you trust me?’ Ross stared back, and then nodded. 

‘Yes.’ he said, knowing that he really did.

‘Okay.’ Jim let him go. ‘Next level.’ He sat up and undid his own jeans. ‘Clothes off and we can get started.’ He didn’t need to repeat himself. Ross wriggled frantically to get his jeans and briefs off and shucked his t-shirt as well. He lobbed everything off the bed and lay there, all self-consciousness forgotten in the face of what was coming. He watched Jim get undressed and then start digging around in the bedclothes. He came up with the lube and a condom and Ross felt his heart skip. Jim looked at him.

‘You know how to use one of these?’ he asked and Ross shrugged.

‘Seen it in class.’ he said. ‘But I’ve never actually put one on.’

‘Safety first and foremost.’ Jim said. He chucked it down next to Ross’ head. ‘Turn over.’ Ross frowned but complied, rolling onto his stomach. He felt Jim’s hand on his back, stoking soothingly along his spine and then he moved so he was kneeling over Ross. Ross could feel the breath on the back of his neck and shivered. 

‘What do you want me to do?’ he asked.

‘Nothing.’ Jim replied. ‘Just let me make you feel good.’ He ducked his head and kissed between Ross’ shoulder blades. ‘And remember what I said.’

‘Anytime I want you to stop I say so.’ Ross parroted, his skin on fire as Jim kept kissing, the touches so light they were barely there. ‘What are you going to do?’

‘Make sure that you’re so turned on, you won’t feel a thing.’ Jim said and then he started trailing his tongue down Ross’ spine and Ross buried his face in the duvet to stifle his moans. Jim kept going, moving lower until he got to the small of Ross’ back before he started kissing up again. When he got to Ross’ neck, he put his hand on the back of Ross’ head and pushed his head forward to expose his neck, kissing and licking at the skin until Ross was almost crying. He’d never thought that part of him would be capable of making him feel so good but as Jim started the tongue thing back down again he could barely contain himself. He grabbed the duvet in both hands and held on for dear life. This time when he got back down, Jim didn’t come back up. Instead he stopped and Ross shuddered as he felt Jim’s breath on him. 

‘What are you doing?’ he managed to ask. 

‘Did you like it last night?’ Jim asked, dropping soft kisses across his backside, and Ross’ eyes flew open as he remembered. He got up on his elbows and tried to look over his shoulder at him.

‘Yes.’ he replied and felt Jim smile against his skin. 

‘Can I do it again?’ Jim asked, nosing at him. ‘You taste so fucking good.’ Those words, along with the anticipation of what was coming made Ross drop his head forward. 

‘Please…’ he breathed and then Jim moved, opening him up and leaning in to slowly drag his tongue over him. It was even better than the night before and Ross felt his breathing speed up in time with his thumping heart and before he knew it he was panting into the bed as Jim started to lick faster, the warm in in the van hitting and cooling the saliva on his skin. Ross moved one knee up, pushing back into Jim’s mouth without any thought at all, chasing the pleasure that he felt with each brush f Jim’s tongue and then Jim held him still, his fingers digging into Ross’ hips and the rhythm changed completely. It was harder and then Ross arched back as he felt the tip of Jim’s tongue push in just the tiniest bit. 

‘Fuck!’ It came out a lot louder than he’d intended but Ross couldn’t bring himself to be embarrassed, not when Jim pushed in a little more and it felt so good and he was thrusting down into the bed and…

‘Okay.’ Jim’s voice sounded almost out of control. ‘Time out.’ He had stopped completely and Ross whined in disappointment as he turned properly this time and looked at it.

‘Why did you stop?’ he asked and Jim grinned. He sat up, wiping his mouth.

‘Because I need to be ready if things get a little heated.’ he said and Ross couldn’t stop himself from laughing. 

‘A little heated?’ he said. ‘Which fucking century are you from?’ 

‘Shut up.’ Jim retorted, grabbing the condom. ‘Come here, I’m going to teach you something.’ He waited for Ross to sit cross legged opposite him and looked him up and down. His frank appraisal made Ross blush. Jim noticed and leaned over to kiss him. 

‘Don’t be embarrassed.’ he said. ‘You’re beautiful.’

‘I’m skinny.’ Ross folded his arms. 

‘You’re perfect.’ Jim replied. ‘And you have a gorgeous cock.’ That made Ross blush even harder and duck his head. He watched Jim open the condom and take it out. He expected him to put it on, but Jim held it out to him. 

‘You want me to do it?’ he asked and Jim nodded. 

‘It’s good for you to learn. You’ll need to practise on yourself as well, but if you learn to put it on the other guy it also means you can make sure it’s on properly.’ he said and took Ross’ hand, placing it on his upturned palm. ‘So that’s going to be what you’re doing.’ Ross looked at the condom on his hand and then picked it up gingerly. Jim laughed and helped him. 

‘Obviously this bit goes up.’ he said. ‘You have to make sure there’s no air in it, or it can go kabluey.’ That made Ross smile.

‘Did you just seriously use the word kablooie?’ he asked. 

‘Fuck off.’ Jim retorted. He bit his lip as Ross took hold of him. ‘Make sure you roll it down evenly.’ Ross focused on what he was doing, making sure it got all the way down before letting go. He admired his handiwork. Jim did the same. ‘Not bad for first try. You can try yourself later.’

‘Why will I need to do that?’ Ross asked without thinking. 

‘Cause you’re not fucking me without one.’ Jim said, smile wide as he watched Ross’ brain catch up with what he just said. 

‘Me fuck you?’ he asked, realising he probably sounded a little slow.

‘Yes.’ Jim replied. ‘I like being on the bottom jut as much as I like being on the top. And it will be good. You can figure out which position you like, or even if you like both.’ He locked eyes with Ross and Ross felt his stomach lurch. Then Jim launched himself at him and Ross toppled over backwards, Jim on top of him. The sudden contact of their bare skin sent fire through him and he happily accepted the kiss he was given, opening his mouth and fighting back as Jim pinned him to the bed. It was so much more than he’d expected, the surging heat and desire that made him want to just lie still and let Jim do anything to him. 

‘Ross…’ Jim’s voice has harsh, like he was trying to catch his breath and then Ross found himself being turned, Jim’s hands sure and strong. Ross only had time to brace himself and then Jim’s mouth was back where it had been before, but this time they were both far gone and Ross gave up and let himself cry out and push back as hard as he wanted. He could feel a flash of pain where Jim’s hand gripped too hard, but all it did was push him further out along the edge. He dug his own fingers into the duvet under him, whining and panting and moaning as he let Jim take him apart, until he was so hard it hurt. He heard a click and then Jim was gone, replaced by a sting of cold on his skin and then Jim’s fingers were there, stroking softly and Ross remembered what Demelza had told him about the need to be stretched before anything could actually go in. 

‘You ready?’ Jim asked and Ross twisted so he could look back at him.

‘Do it.’ he breathed and then felt the tip of one finger go in. Ross gritted his teeth at the extreme of sensation and dropped his head down, forehead resting on his hands.

‘Tell me if it hurts.’ Jim said, and he shook his head.

‘Doesn’t.’ he panted. ‘Fuck, it feels so good…’ 

‘Hang on then.’ There was a smirk in Jim’s voice. ‘It’s going to get better.’ He pushed and the lube made the passage smooth and effortless, his finger going in until his hand bumped against Ross. Ross swallowed hard, his mouth dry from breathing too hard. He took a few deep breaths and then Jim started to move his hand. It felt so strange and it took a few moments to get used to the feeling of Jim’s finger moving in and out of him, but once he was used to it Ross found himself quickly focusing on nothing but the way it dragged and the friction that felt so good. Jim kept his rhythm steady, and then he twisted slightly and Ross felt like he was losing his mind as he hit something that made everything that had come before seem pale in comparison. He moaned, his whole body convulsing and Jim threw one arm across his back to hold him still.

‘Well, you definitely seem to have a prostate.’ he said and Ross could hear that peak smugness had definitely been achieved. 

‘Fuck, yes.’ he said, his own voice sounding unrecognisable. ‘Do it again.’ Jim laughed and curled his finger and there it was again, most definitely not something that Ross had known what to expect even with Demelza’s warning. He collapsed face first into the bed as Jim stroked gently, keeping the stimulation light. It was by turns utterly glorious and supremely frustrating and Ross felt himself wanting more. He tried to wriggle and was rewarded by Jim’s finger slipping in probably a lot harder than either he or Ross had expected. It was enough to make him shout.

‘You okay?’ Jim asked, concern colouring his voice.

‘Yes,’ Ross replied. ‘But can you go harder. And maybe more?’

‘Like another one?’ Jim asked and Ross hummed assent. He felt Jim pull out and then there was a fuck load more lube going on. This time two fingers started off stroking around and over him and then they were pressing in just enough and ross felt his body open up and take them in. It burned a little, but he was so turned on he completely ignored it in favour of the other feeling. He could feel the sweat trickling down from his shoulders to the dip in his back.

‘Fuck, baby boy. You feel so fucking good.’ Jim was breathless. He was moving his hand in that same steady rhythm and Ross melted into the bed. ‘I want to fuck you so much.’ Ross shifted and heat surged in his chest. 

‘Harder.’ he found himself whining. ‘Please.’

‘Fuck.’ Jim sounded broken, but his hand sped up and Ross started to cry out with every thrust in, his whole body shaking. 

‘I can’t…’ he panted, unable to even keep still anymore. ‘Please…’ Jim pulled his fingers out and moved so he was kneeling over Ross.

‘Tell me if it hurts.’ he whispered into Ross’ sweat damp hair. The he moved into position and Ross spread his legs a little to give him room and then it was there.

At first he couldn’t believe that something that felt that big would fit inside him and he tensed up. Then Jim leaned in, his tongue licking at the sweat on his skin and Ross felt himself start to relax. He focused on the feeling of Jim’s mouth on him, on his tongue dragging over his skin and then Jim’s cock was pushing in and Ross gritted his teeth against the burn.

‘I got you, baby.’ Jim breathed. ‘Let go.’ 

It happened almost as Ross was deciding that maybe it wouldn’t. His body suddenly relented and he felt Jim go in the first bit and it was like he was being broken open. It hurt and Ross hissed. To his surprise, Jim pulled out immediately. 

‘Fuck that.’ he said, and he fell down on his back next to Ross. ‘Come here.’ 

‘What are you doing?’ Ross asked, and Jim pulled at him.

‘You’re getting on top.’ he said. ‘It’ll be easier that way. You control it.’ He helped Ross get to his knees and move to straddle him, holding the base of his cock until Ross was in position over him. They locked eyes and Ross was amazed to see that Jim’s face was almost reverent when he looked at him. He lowered an it was there again. This time it went in easily enough, but then the burn was back. Ross leaned forward, hands on Jim’s chest to steady himself. Jim reached for him, hands on Ross’ forearms. ‘Just breathe, baby.’ His blue eyes were almost black and his skin was flushed and shiny with sweat. Ross was pretty sure he’d never seen anything so beautiful in his life.

‘I’m okay.’ he panted. ‘It’s a bit easier now.’ He lowered a bit more, his head falling back as he felt Jim go in inch by inch, so incredibly slow but so fucking good. 

‘Oh God…’ Jim was hanging on so hard his knuckles were white. ‘So fucking good.’ He arched back, eyes closed and throat exposed and Ross wanted to bite him there, leave marks that said that Jim belonged to him. He shifted and another inch went in. Jim had been right, it was so much easier like this and Ross kept pushing. He gave himself a bit of time to recover between each increment and the burn faded faster and faster each time. Then it was all the way in and Ross was sitting flush against Jim. Jim’s eyes were open again, and he looked directly at Ross. ‘You good.’ 

‘I’m good.’ Ross leaned forward and the shift brought a new set of sensations. ‘Can I move?’

‘Whenever you want baby.’ Jim smiled. Ross smiled back and rocked his hips a little. It felt good, and the slip slide of the lube made it easier each time he did it. Underneath him, Jim was making little noises that were halfway between a moan and a whine. He was still watching Ross, his mouth open and his dimples hovering at the corners of his mouth. ‘Do you have any idea how fucking amazing you look?’ Ross smiled, knowing he probably looked demented. He started to move and now it was definitely easier. He got braver, rocking with a bit more speed and then it started to get really good.

‘Holy shit.’ he blurted out and Jim laughed.

‘Now you got it.’ he panted. ‘Keep going. I want you to ride me hard.’ Ross did as he asked, pushing down harder, chasing the feeling he’d had earlier. His head was down and he closed his eyes as he felt Jim let go of his arm and take his cock in his hand, stroking hard enough for little white lights to start going off behind his eyes. 

‘Oh…’ it was all that would come out and then Ross couldn’t stop himself as he started to buck up into Jim’s hand as he moved. 

Then it hit.

Ross had never had an orgasm like it. He felt like every part of him was electrified, like his hair was standing on end and his skin was so sensitive that Ross was pretty sure that if Jim even so much as breathed on him he would come again and not be able to stop. 

He completely missed Jim coming, so enamoured was he with what had just happened. When he finally opened his eyes he saw Jim lying flat on the bed, hands thrown above his head with his eyes closed and breathing like he’d just run the hundred metre dash. 

‘Motherfucker.’ he said. ‘That was fucking awesome.’ He opened his eyes and looked up at Ross. ‘You are a natural.’ Ross laughed, his whole heart feeling like it was about to burst. 

‘Cool.’ he said and fell forward into Jim’s arms.


	9. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end of the weekend.
> 
> Than you all for the kudos and really lovely comments you've given me. I am extremely appreciative. I have also promised Raven that I will come back to these two so watch out for one shots :D

They woke up early, after barely any sleep. It was still dim inside the car and they decided that it would be an excellent time to continue Ross’ education.

‘There?’ Ross frowned in concentration and Jim would have laughed at how cute he looked if he hadn’t been barely hanging onto every last bit of self-control he possessed. It was extremely difficult to pay attention with Ross lying naked next to him, two fingers up Jim’s arse and trying to find his prostate. He was being very careful, but the slow movements of his fingers were like torture.

‘Almost.’ he said and Ross adjusted his position.

‘There?’ he asked and this time Jim couldn’t help himself. He laughed and Ross’ dark brows knitted together. ‘Shut up. I’m trying.’ He bit on his lower lip and tried again.

‘I know.’ The laugh turned into a giggle. ‘Fuck, you are so bloody cute.’

I give up.’ Ross said after another minute. ‘I don’t know where the fucking thing is.’

‘You’re like a centimetre off.’ Jim reached down and pulled Ross’ arm in so his fingers slid deeper. ‘Okay, that’s better. Now feel around. It’ll be a bit irregular.’

‘This whole fucking thing is irregular.’ Ross said, grumpily. That got another snort out of Jim and Ross was just about to give up completely when suddenly the snort turned into a strangled noise and Jim went rigid, grabbing at Ross’ shoulder.

‘Fuck, yes. Right fucking there.’ he gasped and Ross looked surprised and then very smug. He pressed in, softly like Jim had told him to, and Jim responded by arching up in a most gratifying way.

‘Can you come from that? Ross asked, still prodding and Jim nodded frantically.

‘Oh fuck yes.’ he ground out. ‘Give me five minutes and I will.’ He pushed down onto Ross’ fingers. ‘It’s even better when you get blown at the same time.’

‘Really?’ Ross’ perked up. ‘Okay.’

‘Wait, I didn’t mean…’ Jim didn’t get any further because Ross had slid down his body and was now very enthusiastically attempting to get as much of Jim’s cock in his mouth that he could. ‘Oh, Christ on a bicycle…’ He lay back and closed his eyes, barely able to even breathe anymore. Down below, Ross was going at it like a Great Dane with a chew toy, although thankfully minus the teeth. Jim had been very clear on that point. He reached down, fingers tangling in the thick curly hair and let go. It didn’t take very long, not after all the poking around Ross had been doing and then it was on top of him, crushing the air out of his chest and making it feel like he was about to spontaneously combust. He tugged gently at Ross’ hair.

‘Up.’ he panted. ‘I’m coming…’ Ross, however, seemed to have other plans and kept going. Jim was about to pull him off physically but it was too late. He came hard, bowing up off the bed and Ross started gagging violently as cum flooded his mouth. He pulled off abruptly and the residue ended up all over his face. Jim looked at him, horribly concerned that he was going to choke. But eventually Ross stopped and grabbed the now somewhat soiled towel to wipe his face and mouth off.

‘Okay, so that was gross.’ he said, sounding remarkably cheerful.

‘I tried to warn you.’ Jim said and he shrugged.

‘It seemed like a good idea.’ he replied, throwing himself dramatically to the bed. ‘I didn’t know you were going to try and asphyxiate me.’ Jim laughed, then sat up.

‘Idiot.’ he said, not even trying to hide the affection in his voice. ‘Right, now that’s out of the way…’ he leaned over and grabbed one of the leftover condoms scattered around the bed, opened it and rolled it on Ross quickly and efficiently, drawing a look of deep admiration.

‘You’re really good at that.’ he said and Jim smiled.

‘Loads of practice.’ he replied, moving into position. ‘You ready?’ Ross nodded and held onto the pillow under his head. He had been extremely excited about this part of proceedings and Jim was trying to take it slow. That was proving to be very difficult when every suggestion and action was being met with a brilliant smile and boundless enthusiasm.

He lowered, taking hold of Ross in one hand to hold him steady. Ross watched intently, his eyes fixed on where they were about to come together. He caught his breath and held it as their bodies made contact and then his head fell back and he moaned very loudly as Jim pushed down and he went in. Jim watched him, checking for any sign of discomfort but Ross was the picture of pleasure, pale skin rosy and his eyes dark and deep. Jim leaned forward, just enough for leverage, and settled on him, Ross’ cock sliding home easily.

‘Oh shit…’ Ross was out of breath already. ‘You didn’t say it would feel like that.’ He reached for Jim’s hips and held him. ‘Christ, that’s so fucking amazing.’

‘Told you.’ Jim panted. ‘And I haven’t even started moving yet.’ He shifted and Ross whined. ‘Just let me do the all the work, yeah.’

‘Okay.’ Ross looked up at him. Their eyes locked and held. Jim held out both hands and Ross frowned then realised what to do. He reached up and Jim linked their fingers together.

‘Hang on. I’m going to ride the fuck out of you.’ he breathed and then started moving.

*********

Demelza emerged from Anne’s tent and wandered over to the van. As she got closer she heard something that made her go pink to the roots of her hair, blending seamlessly with the colour. She was frozen in place and even Anne coming out the tent didn’t distract her from the noises coming from inside the van.

‘Hey.’ Anne came up behind her, then stopped when she saw Demelza’s face and then heard what had caused the expression currently on it. ‘Oh my God…’

‘They’re so fucking loud.’ Demelza hissed. ‘Honestly, I have never heard Ross make that much noise before.’ They stood and listened as the activity inside the van seemed to reach a crescendo, the whole vehicle swaying ever so gently. Then the noise died off and Anne and Demelza held onto each other, trying desperately to stifle their giggles.

‘Oh thank fuck that is over!’ They turned and saw that Flint had his head out the tent flap. There were bags under his eyes. ‘We haven’t slept a wink.’

‘Can’t blame us this time.’ Anne laughed. ‘We really did crash and burn last night.’

‘Yeah, but they didn’t.’ John said, coming to do the same. He looked just as rough. ‘We’ve been counting. That’s five for Ross and Jim apiece.’

‘Oh my fuck.’ Demelza looked like she was going to scream. ‘This is insane.’ She turned back to the van and banged hard on the window. ‘Ross! Whatever you and Jim are doing in there, you need to get it done. We have to go in an hour.’

‘Aw, now that’s just sad.’ Anne said, smiling.

‘Not for our ears it’s not.’ Flint muttered and he and John retreated inside their tent.

**********

Jim smiled and kissed Ross’ sweaty forehead. He was collapsed on top of him, mindless of the cum that was now sticking them together.

‘At least I’m sending you home with a smile on your face.’ he said. Ross looked like he wanted to ay something, but instead he bit down on his lower lip.

‘I don’t want to go home.’ he said bluntly. Jim raised his eyebrows at him.

‘You have school tomorrow.’ he said. ‘And I have uni.’

‘I know.’ Ross heaved a sigh. Jim sat up.

‘Besides.’ he said. ‘If we’re going to start doing this regularly, I think I should probably ask you out properly.’ Ross’ eyes widened.

‘Ask me out?’ he said, his face pinking up.

‘Yeah.’ Jim lifted off of him and flopped down next to him on the bed. ‘If you want.’

‘Like be my boyfriend, ask me out?’ Ross said, and Jim smiled.

‘If you want.’ he repeated. ‘I like you, Ross. A lot.’ He looked at him steadily. ‘So, you in?’ His reply was one of those blinding smiles Jim was pretty sure he was already falling for, and then Ross leaned over and kissed him.

‘I’m in.’ he replied.

*********

_Just over one year later_

‘Ross!’ Grace’s voice floated up the stairs. ‘He’s here.’ Ross zipped his bag closed and swung it onto his shoulder.

‘Coming!’ he shouted back and did the final check to make sure he had everything he needed. As he did so, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He had grown another four inches since the previous year when his life had taken such a dramatic turn. He still dressed the same and he still lived to land the perfect 360, but there were other things that now made him smile just as much. He came downstairs, and found his mother entertaining his guest in the kitchen. Ross gave them both a look. It was standing joke in the Poldark household that Grace was even more in smitten than he was.

‘Hey baby boy.’ The now familiar voice made Ross smile and he accepted the kiss that came with the greeting. ‘You ready to go?’

‘Yup.’ he replied and turned to kiss his mother goodbye for the next three months. She hugged him hard and then let him go.

‘I can’t believe my baby’s going to Spain for three months.’ she said. ‘What am I going to do?’

‘Get some peace and quiet.’ Joshua laughed from where he was standing at the back door with his arm around Jim’s shoulders. ‘Who knows, we might even turn your bedroom into a bar.’ He winked at Grace. ‘I’ve always harboured ambitions.’

‘Don’t you fucking dare.’ Ross retorted. ‘And stop hanging all over my boyfriend. Anyone would think you love him more than me.’

‘We do.’ Joshua laughed, but he let go of Jim and hauled Ross into a crushing hug. ‘You boys drive safely.’

‘We will.’ Jim said, grinning at Ross over Joshua’s shoulder.

They finally managed to extricate themselves from the kitchen and exhortations to make sure they wore sunblock and not to drink too much Sangria. They walked down the drive to where the van was parked at the side of the road. Ross chucked his bag in the back onto the bed and then went around to help Jim put his bike in the rack that had become a fixture of the van eleven months previously when he and Jim had officially started going out.

‘So.’ Jim said when they were finally in the van and had their seatbelts strapped. ‘Last chance to escape.’ Ross huffed and leaned over to grab him by the front of the t-shirt and pull him into a very thorough open-mouthed kiss.

‘As if.’ he said when he let him go. Jim smiled and started the van, pulling out into the street. Ross watched him, heart skipping happily as he settled in for the ride.


End file.
